Flowers for Balaton
by KitFisto1997
Summary: I'll put the first Story Arc on shortly. Look for it on my DeviantART until then :D. This one is going to be made up of separate, but interconnected stories that go through the life of my OC (Marcus) after the events of A Splintered Man (The first Story Arc) and the revelation that he isn't exactly human...
1. Prologue: Sweet Talkin' Woman

Flowers for Balaton. An Axis Powers Hetalia/1983: Doomsday Fanfiction

(Prologue: Sweet Talkin' Woman)

Port Elizabeth International Airport, New Britain. August, 2015.

"Marcus!" A young woman tackled the Prussian to the ground, grinning from ear to ear. "…nice to meet you too, Frankie…" Marcus sighed as he was caught in his cousins' embrace. "It's been so long!" Frankie smiled as she helped Marcus to his feet. He tried to keep himself balanced as his cousin was bombarding him with questions. "There you are!" Lina walked over to the pair, with a somewhat unhappy look on her face. "You left me standing at the food court-"

Lina suddenly laid eyes on the young woman that was standing next to Marcus. "I believe we haven't met, I assume that you're Marcus's cousin, ja?" "Ja, I'm Francine, but you can call me Frankie.". "I'm Lina." The blonde smiled as she shook the other woman's hand.

Lina handed Marcus his suitcase as Frankie waited near the exit. "I'm surprised that you don't have siblings" she looked at her lover with a perplexed look. "We're pretty close. It's due to the fact that we're the only other family members that we know of, most of our other relatives are either dead or still out there and haven't been found yet." Marcus replied in a somewhat sombre fashion.

The trio walked out of the airport and to a waiting taxi. _"I didn't know you had a girlfriend"_ Francine looked at her cousin as she helped him pack his bags into the back of the taxi. _"We've only been together for a few months."_ Marcus blushed suddenly before replying in mangled Afrikaans. "You still can't speak Afrikaans" Frankie giggled "I guess a lot of things don't change…"

"A lot of things will change, especially for you, Herr Wright…"a disembodied voice whispered to him in a mocking tone. Marcus ignored the voice as he got into the car with his cousin...

-0-

"It's not much, but its home…" Frankie opened the door to a small house and walked inside, with Marcus and Lina following her inside. "It's still messy…" Marcus quipped, leaving his cousin with a less-than-amused look. "You're still cynical as ever." Francine rolled her eyes at her cousin. Lina looked around the small living room, the whole place was a mess, newspapers in various foreign languages were scattered across the room, photos and various notes were pinned to a small notice board that hung on the wall next to an old desk that had books pile upon it.

Most of the photos were of family members or some of Frankie's colleagues. A few photos caught the woman's attention, once photo had Francine and Marcus standing next to the Brandenburg Gate, the caption reading 'Berlin, NYE 2012', another had the pair standing near Stonehenge, with a few more photos showing other landmarks.

Some other photographs showed the pair at various parties or family reunions, one image of the pair looking somewhat drunk had the caption 'Marcus' 18th Birthday, Port Elizabeth, 2010' "I remember that night." Frankie smiled as Lina turned around to face the young woman. "I hope you've managed to keep him under control" Frankie giggled "He's got a bit of a love for whiskey." Frankie sighed "He's been having a few problems lately…" Lina was surprised "Problems?" Lina looked at her with a worried look on her face. "Is he an alcoholic or something…?"

"He isn't, but the last time I was with him, he'd had too much to drink. He was ranting about his father, how he hadn't live up to his expectations…" Frankie sighed as she adjusted her glasses. "He ended up having a breakdown and was crying into my shoulder by the end of it, I assume that he hasn't told you about it." Lina shook her head slowly "No, he hasn't"

Frankie looked at Lina with a saddened expression "That's typical of him; he's pretty good as hiding his emotions. He was bullied a lot when he was a kid; I thought he'd gotten over it…"

Marcus walked into the room as the pair had finished talking, not knowing what his lover and cousin just talked about. "Looking at our old photos, 'eh?" he smiled, looking at the photos of his younger self. Frankie and Lina looked at each other as they knew that Marcus would find out that his lover knew about what had happened to him all those years ago…

A few hours later…

"It's been a few years since I've been here…" Marcus looked around at the old tavern, the building had been there since colonization, even seeing some damage during the Civil War. But thankfully it had managed to weather through the chaos that presided over South Africa since Doomsday.

"So many memories…" Frankie smiled as she walked over to her cousin, with Lina following her. "Frankie?" a young man in his mid-30s walked over to the trio. "Herr Smith?" Frankie looked at the young man with a surprised expression. "It's been a while…"

"You-know-who is here…" the blonde haired assistant moved over to a booth. "She's in one of her usual moods…" he sighed as the three sat at the booth. "SMITH! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!?" a loud voice boomed from one of the nearby booths. "Hang on one second…" Smith sighed as he walked over to a young woman sitting at the booth adjacent to the trio.

"There you are!" she grinned, looking very intoxicated, with numerous beer glasses piling up on the table. "Be a good boy and get me a few more beers~" she grinned, patting Smith's shoulder. "Will do Ms Kirkland… Will do…" the man walked over to the bartender, who'd anticipated the woman's large bar tab and had put aside a few glasses. _"Bitte, I'll help"_ Frankie walked over to Smith and grabbed some of the glasses.

Smith looked at the young woman as he grabbed some of the glasses. "Danke…" the pair walked over to the intoxicated woman. "Here you go, Ms Kirkland" Smith put down his set of glasses as Frankie did the same thing. "Dankie" the young woman grabbed one of the glasses and chugged it down.

"Is she always like this?" Frankie sighed "Not always, but you know, Friday night is when she goes on a pub crawl…" Smith gloomily noted. "I see that you've brought your cousin along, how's he going?" "He's fine; apparently he got called away to the Alpine Confederation a few months ago…"

The pair then walked back to the booth that Marcus and Lina were occupying, although the latter had disappeared, she'd probably gone to bathroom…. "Sorry 'bout that…" Smith sighed "Ms Kirkland can be quite a handful…" Marcus raised an eyebrow "Ms Kirkland?" Marcus raised an eyebrow. "I know that name…"

Marcus was too busy thinking about where he'd heard the name when he suddenly felt a hand slam onto his shoulder. "Hello there~" a feminine voice with an odd British/Afrikaner accent whispered. _"Shiße!"_ Marcus nearly spat out his drink in surprise. Frankie facepalmed upon seeing who'd decided to grace her cousin with their presence.

The voice in question belonged to a young woman with blonde hair in twin ponytails. She wore a dark brown Paratrooper's uniform with a few badges sewn on. "Tell me… Why are you here~?" the young woman giggled ash she drunk another glass of beer. "I… umm…" Marcus stammered, knowing what Lina might do to him should she see what was unfolding. "Hopefully she won't give me a good whipping…" he thought to himself.

"You're a silent one~" the woman put her arm around Marcus's neck, who's face had gone bright red from embarrassment. "Leave him alone, Alice…" Frankie sighed as she sipped her own glass of beer. "I'm just having a little bit of fun~" she grinned, chugging another glass of beer. Frankie continued to drink her glass as Marcus was trying to ignore the drunken woman.

"SMITH!" Alice yelled at the top of her lungs "A few more glasses would be nice~!" "Ja… Ms Kirkland…" Smith sighed as he went over to the bar to get some more beer. "You're a Nation, aren't you…?" Marcus looked at Alice with a curious look, his blushing had since subsided.

"Yep, Alice Kirkland, or as you would know me, New Britain" she grinned at Marcus. "How am I not surprised… You're just like Herr Beilschmidt" he sighed. "Prussia? You know him?" Alice looked at the young man in a more serious tone. "You drink like him, that's for sure…" Marcus deadpanned as he drunk another shot of whiskey.

"Sorry 'bout that…" Lina walked over to the pair, initially not noticing that Alice was sitting in her spot. "I just had to-" Lina then noticed the young woman. "Guten tag…" was all she managed to say. "Marcus..? Who is this?" Lina looked at her lover; one of her eyes was twitching as she gave him a disturbing smile.

"It's not what it looks like!" Alice looked at Lina with a sincere look on her face. "I'm Alice Kirkland… New Britain…" Lina suddenly realised who she was talking to, as she awkwardly saluted the Nation.

"Sorry. I get a little bit overprotective of Marcus…" Lina sighed as she sat next to Frankie. "I didn't know that you were one of them…" Alice noticed the young woman's peculiar Swiss German accent; she must have travelled all the way from the Alpine Confederation. _"Maybe she might know Vasch"_ she thought to herself.

"Who's up for some more beer~?" Smith walked over to the group with a few more glasses of beer, although it looked like that he'd had too much of it himself. _"Dankie"_ Frankie smiled as she took the glasses from Smith.

Alice smiled as she chugged down another glass of beer. She glanced out of the window out of drunken boredom, but momentarily snapped out of her drunken haze as she thought she spotted a familiar face in the crowd of people near the tavern. _"Rus in vrede , die vader ..."_


	2. Chapter 1: Your's Truly, 2023

For those who are confused and don't get any of the references. Check out the first Story Arc on my deviantART (KitFisto1997)

Just as a warning, this fic might end up getting pretty dark as the Chapters go on...

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Flowers for Balaton, An Axis Powers Hetalia/RDNA-verse Fanfiction

(Chapter 1: Yours Truly, 2023)

Central London, United Kingdom, early March, 2023

 _"_ _Everything is so different…"_ Marcus sighed as he read a copy of The Vanishing Shadows. The sounds of some Pre-Doomsday rock music blaring from the old stereo system in his rather spacious apartment. Ever since he'd joined the Agency a few months ago, he was still trying to get used to the differences in technology that many of his fellow Agents were quite used to. Thankfully his apartment was modelled to resemble something from his timeline. Books of almost every subject were piled high beside numerous shelves that were full of old CDs and cassette tapes, among other things...

A knock on the door broke his concentration. "Cthulhu can wait…" he sighed as he got off the couch and walked over to the door. He opened the door to a young woman holding a box of pizza. "Here's your order, sir" the woman handed him the box, getting a few ten pound notes in return. "Danke…" he smiled as he shut the door. A flash of light coming from his bedroom caught his interest. "How many times have I told him to-"

"Sorry about that, I had to go meet a few higher ups…" Claude then laid eyes on a not-so-happy Marcus. _"_ _Try to tell me that you're coming over next time. Oh, and use the front door…."_ The Prussian deadpanned before continuing in crisp, unwavering British English. "I got some pizza, otherwise there's some curry from last night in the fridge…"

"Sorry... I'm guessing that you've done some more reading about this place" Claude looked over to the desk that was in the corner of the room. Books and various other things were piled on top of it, obstructing a computer that was practically buried under all of it. "That's a definite yes…"

"One month out of training and I'm sent here, only to be told that I'm not assigned to do anything, yet…" Marcus sighed. "Although I've been told that I'll get sent the Neu Wein soon…" Claude looked at his friend with sympathy. He was well out of his element, it would take some time for him to get used to all the differences in the technology and social norms. He'd heard a few reports of him nearly being arrested or a few times due to his snarky demeanour.

"This place reminds me of Pre-Doomsday Britain or at least from what I could gather from old photos… But it's a bit more depressing." Marcus looked out the window, the Palace of Westminster could be seen on a clear day, but with the rain and fog, it was barely visible. Until he was to be given an assignment by the higher ups, he was in deep cover as a university student. Despite not liking the idea of going through more boring lectures, it was aiding him with learning about what the hell was going on in this universe…

"I was hoping that you might want to have something to eat, seeing that you're here now…" Marcus smiled; he was in the mood for a drink or two with one of his fellow operatives. Claude nodded. "Sure."

-0-

Marcus slowly sipped his glass of Cola, some of the medical staff back at the Hub told him to lay off the whiskey, which he did, albeit quite reluctantly. "So… How's Lina been?" Claude looked at Marcus as he was fidgeting with his fork. "She's fine and still working with the League. Vasch has been pretty lenient lately… Although, you do know her family after all, being born of nobility and such…" "Being distantly related to the Bonaparte's surely has its perks…" he continued to sip his drink as Claude ate some of the pizza.

"I heard about some of the incidents that happened to you" Claude looked at Marcus as he finished his glass. "I got called a Kraut by a bunch of racists; I was drunk at the time, so I nearly ended up punching one of the wankers in the face. Thankfully the one of the officers was sympathetic towards me and just let me off with a warning…" he sighed.

Claude looked at Marcus with a sympathetic smile "You have to get used to that kind of thing when you're in America as well. Although I've heard some of the treatment that the Agents in the Reactionary nations have received is far worse."

"Point taken… But keeping my sanity is the hardest part, with that crazy bitch inhabiting my head…" Marcus muttered "I have the sedatives, don't worry" Claude gave Marcus a reassuring look as he continued to eat his food.

"I wish that they sent me somewhere else…" Marcus gloomily muttered. "It's about the Reds, isn't it…?" Claude looked at Marcus as he noticed something was a bit off with his subordinate. "They must die… All of them… They. Must. Die…" Marcus's voice changed to an alluring female voice.

Marcus felt his hands move towards his holster that was hidden underneath his jacket. _"_ _Nein… Roza, bitte, stop…"_ Marcus tried to regain control of his body from the malevolent presence, but to no avail. Marcus heard the voice taunting him as he tried to control his body, knowing that at any moment he could harm Claude. He managed to regain control as he yelled "Claude… Sedate me, NOW!" Marcus felt a stinging sensation as he noticed that the darkness was taking over…

Meanwhile…

"Awww, I just wanted to have some fun…" Roza giggled, she looked at her current body with a malevolent grin. Marcus looked at her with disdain. "You really want to make my life hell, don't you?" She looked at him with a less-than-sane expression. "You know why, I want my revenge, and I WILL have it…"

"You're one crazy bint…" Marcus glared at the woman. The Hungarian's eyes suddenly changed from a light blue to a blood-red colour. "Crazy, you say? I'll show you crazy!" Marcus was taken aback when he felt the woman's full weight pin him to the ground. She grinned manically as she pulled out a small rusted combat knife from a sheath on her belt.

"What to do to you… Hmmm…" the woman grinned as she began to trace an outline on Marcus's chest with the weapon. "This might sting a little…" She proceeded to tear off Marcus's shirt and jacket. She looked at his well-maintained body. "Too bad that your lover isn't around to see this…"

Roza then started to carve a few short lines into Marcus' chest, making him wince in pain. "What's wrong~? Can't handle a few cuts~?" she teased him; Marcus didn't give a response, or at least an audible one.

Roza continued to carve deeper and deeper cuts into Marcus' body, Roza seemed to enjoy torturing her current body, even though the wounds would be temporary, she made sure that Marcus would feel every last slice.

Marcus was strangely calm during the whole ordeal; he knew that it was only a dream, but the fear of waking up with numerous fatal cuts was still there. "Hopefully Claude would know what to do with my body…" Marcus sighed as he continued to feel his chest being carved up with the insane woman that was on top of him.

 _"_ _Bitte, Marcus, wake up!"_ Marcus was taken by surprise as he heard Claude's voice. Who knows how long he was knocked out for, probably for a few hours... Roza grinned as she stopped cutting Marcus. "It seems that someone wants you to wake up…" The Hungarian held the knife above Marcus's heart, looking deep into her captor's eyes "See you later…" Marcus attempted to reach out to her neck and strangle her as he felt the knife plunge into his chest, knocking him out cold…  
-0-

"Marcus!" Claude shook his subordinate; he was probably still sedated… "Don't leave me… Lina… bitte!" Claude was about to leave Marcus on the couch as he heard his outburst. "You're awake… Good…" Marcus slowly sat up, still reeling from the torture that he'd gone through.

 _"_ _Mein gott…"_ Marcus sighed, covering his face with his hands. Claude sat next to him, putting his hand on Marcus's shoulder. "It's going to be fine; we'll find a way to get through this…" _"_ _Ja… I hope so…"_

-0-

"You shouldn't have done that, Roza…" Maximillian glared at his counterpart showing, who was strangely showing a few signs of sanity. "You know I can't control my urges…" the Hungarian sighed. "I want to stop it, but they just keep taking over…"

"I know that the Uprising was what made you into what you were, but why do you have to make Marcus your plaything? Can't you just let it-" "I'VE HAD ENOUGH! HE CAN BE MY PUPPET! You're not going to stop me, are you…?" Roza grinned, having snapped again. Maximillian could only sigh as he watched Roza silently walk away.

 _"_ _Bitte, keep it together, for our sake, and his…"_


	3. Chapter 2: A Shattered Woman

A/N: Here's chapter 2 of Flowers for Balaton! This chapter goes to some dark places, and gets a bit violent, you have been warned! This story takes place about an hour or so after the Prologue. Hope you guys enjoy it!

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Flowers for Balaton, An Axis Powers Hetalia/1983: Doomsday Fanfiction

(Chapter 2: A Shattered Woman)

Port Elizabeth, New Britain, August 2015.

 _"_ _Ich liebe dich~~"_ Lina smiled as she gave her lover a kiss on the lips. The events that had taken place a few hours prior were nothing but normal. Frankie had collapsed onto the couch, leaving Marcus and Lina to occupy her bed for the night. The trio had left Alice at the tavern with her assistant, Smith, who'd politely refused Frankie's offer of staying the night with them.

"You're such a beautiful woman…" Marcus smiled, holding Lina in his arms; at least he was the one on top this time… "Oh stop it you~ You flatter me too much" The young woman smiled, kissing her lover on the neck. Marcus sighed for a moment, hearing the easily recognizable voice going through his head, still mocking him, trying to drive him to the edge of insanity. Lina then interrupted Marcus from his thoughts with a simple question that would probably need a complex answer, "Marcus..? Are you alright?"

Meanwhile…

 _"_ _Vader… Geen…"_ Alice Kirkland awoke in the same familiar place, the strangely intact building that was Buckingham Palace. The building was buzzing with activity, various military officials and royals were running through the halls of the once great palace, something big was happening.

"Glad to see that you're still alive, Alice…" a familiar voice took Alice by surprise; she turned around to the face of the person she wanted to see the least of. "It's nice to see you too, father…" Alice grumbled. "Don't you want to give your dear old Dad a hug?" the thick-eyebrowed Englishman chuckled, but his smile suddenly went away as she noticed the look on his daughter's. "I saw you outside the bar; shouldn't you be haunting your brothers?" the Afrikaner gave her father a disproving look.

"I'm sorry that I haven't been able to see you…" England sighed, knowing that he'd been forgetting about his daughter. "Sorry!? Is that all you have to say to me?" Alice glared at England. "Alice, please-" "I don't to hear anything from you!" the Nation snapped, "Ever since you passed away, it's never been the same! That stupid fucking cult has been doing a good job at making you look like a God!"

"It was never meant to be like this…" Arthur sighed "I didn't want you to remember me like this… Not as some kind of fucked up deity…"

-0-

"She's been messing with you again, hasn't she…?" Lina looked at Marcus as he tried to stop himself from having another break down. "We can go through this, together…" "Ja… Hopefully…" Marcus sighed as he covered his face with his hands, silently sobbing as Lina put her arm around his neck.

 _"_ _Shhh… Lieben…"_ Lina sighed, not noticing that Marcus had stopped sobbing… Lina was then taken by surprise when she felt Marcus forcefully pin her to the bed. _"Shut it, you Schweizer whore!"_ he snapped _"You can't help him now… He's too weak to control this body…"_ said a mocking voice in an alluring Hungarian accent.

"You…" Lina looked in Marcus's eyes, having turned into a dark red hue. "It's nice that we can meet face to face" she gave her possessed boyfriend a cocky smile before delivering a forceful kick to his groin, making him flinch for a moment, giving Lina enough time to grab Marcus's head and smash it against the wall, knocking him out cold. _"I'm so sorry about this, mein lieben…"_

Frankie walked into the room as Lina picked up Marcus and put him onto the bed. "What… happened?" she yawned as she laid eyes on Marcus, who'd managed to sustain a bruise on his forehead. _"Mein gott…"_ she sighed. _"I hope you weren't being too rough with him…"_

Lina rolled her eyes at Frankie's comment before replying. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you…" Lina looked at her as she walked out of the room to grab an icepack from the freezer. "Try me, Frau Worth. I've met a personified Nation for heaven's sake!" Frankie crossed her arms, leaving Lina to stop as she looked at her and say, "Ever heard of the concept of reincarnation?"

Sometime later…

"He's a WHAT!?" Frankie tried to keep her voice down as she looked at Lina with bewilderment,. "Are you saying that my cousin is some kind of immortal being… How am I not surprised…" she sighed. "It's a bit more complicated than that, although Marcus might be able to explain it better than I could…"

Frankie sighed as she put her hand on Marcus's forehead, noticing that he was wincing in pain. "Is he going to be ok…?" she looked at Lina, hoping that her cousin was ok, wondering what was happening to him. "I hope so…" Lina sighed. _"Bly sterk, neef…"_ Frankie muttered to herself as she watched Marcus writhe around in pain.

 _"_ _It's ok, mein lieben…"_ Lina squeezed Marcus's hand as he continued to sleep. She sighed as she kissed him on the forehead, making Marcus much more clam than he was a moment ago. Lina got off the bed, leaving her lover to sleep soundly.

"Is he going to be ok?" Frankie looked at Lina as Marcus continued to sleep quietly, not knowing if he could have another outburst. "He's going to be ok… I think…" "I bloody hope so…" Frankie muttered under her breath, looking at her sleeping cousin as she walked out of the room with Lina, noticing that Marcus had started to move again…

-0-

Budapest, People's Republic of Hungary, October 1956

 _"_ _Just keep running… Just keep running!"_ The loud screams and explosions were the only thing that the young Hungarian could hear. The echoing voices of her Soviet pursuers her getting closer and closer the more exhausted she became, hoping that they would give her a quick death, if she was unlucky enough to be caught…

Roza darted into the ruins of a small house, the home had probably belonged to a young family, but that didn't matter now, survival was the only thing on her mind. The young woman went through the ruined house, searching for food or a better weapon to defend herself with. She picked up an old combat knife and found a few cans of food, which she avoided. Roza then became aware of the voice of a young Ukrainian male walking towards the house; she crept over to the door and hid in the shadows that were being cast by the fires of a nearby burning building. The young man walked into the house, looking around for any rebellious Hungarians to put down.

Roza held the knife in her hands, thinking that if she were to be found, she might as well just be dead, she didn't want to be violated by the infamous Red Army... A voice echoed in her head, telling her to let her primal instincts take over. _"Do it… Kill him…"_ the malevolent presence echoed through her subconsciousness.

Roza gripped the knife in her right hand and slowly crept up behind the man, putting the knife against his throat. _"Shhhh…. It's going to be over soon…"_ She grinned as she slammed him against the wall. Roza held the blade close to the young man's throat, grinning manically as she pressed the blade deep into his neck.

 _"_ _Mert az én népem…"_ she whispered in his ear. Those were the last words that he would ever hear. Roza could barely stifle an insane laugh as she watched the now-deceased man's blood spurt across her face as she brutally stabbed the young man's throat an innumerable amount of times.

The dead Ukrainian's body slumped to the ground, still bleeding heavily from the fatal wound in his neck; Roza went through the man's belongings, grabbing a sheath for her new weapon and some ammunition for her rifle. She felt an inner conflict within her now fractured consciousness. _"You're a trained killer… The perfect killer"_ a sadistic voice said, while another one yelled back _"You're better than this! You can fight her! Fight the madness within you!"_

 _"_ _Nem… I don't want too!"_ Roza held her head as the two conflicting personalities fought to see who would eventually take control of the young, fractured woman. Roza was too busy trying to stave off the arguing voices in her head to hear the voice of a fellow Magyar running towards her. "Roza!"

 _"_ _Elizaveta…?"_ Roza turned around, her face covered in blood and tears; one of her eyes was twitching as the Personification walked over to the woman, trying to keep her sanity. Hungary held her fellow Hungarian tightly, knowing that something was wrong with her. _"You're one of them…"_ Roza looked at the Nation with a look of confusion _"One of wha- mpphh!"_ Roza was suddenly quietened when Hungary's hand went over the woman's mouth, muffling the rest of her response as the shouting from what sounded like a group of Soviet soldiers got louder. _"We gotta get out of here…"_

 _"_ _Follow me…"_ Elizaveta signalled to Roza as she began to sneak out of the ruined house. The pair quickly ran towards another abandoned building. The defaced flags of the People's Republic hung defiantly from the damaged façades of a few of the nearby buildings, with the pounding of artillery and gunfire slowly grew louder, as did the voices of the pair's pursers…

 _"_ _Find them! Find the traitors!"_ Roza heard the Communist troops bark out their orders; it seemed that they were starting to lose their pursuers…

 _"_ _Pochemu privet , Vengriy ..."_ Hungary froze, possibly out of pure terror, she feared that the owner of that familiar voice would catch up to her eventually… Roza looked at Hungary with a similar look; know that they might suffer a fate worse than death…

 _"_ _Örülök, hogy látlak ... Oroszország…"_


	4. Chapter 3: Through the Looking Glass

Here's the latest Chapter! Tell me what you guys think of it! :D

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Flowers for Balaton, an RDNA-verse/Axis Powers Hetalia Fanfiction.

(Chapter 3: Through the Looking Glass)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, American Federation, April, 2023

"Last train to Neu Wein is arriving in 45 minutes, I repeat, last train arriving at 9.00 pm in approximately 45 minutes…"

Marcus walked to the platform of city's train station; he'd spent most of the whole day on a plane that had sent him from London to New York, then taking a 'short' drive to Philadelphia. His attempts to sleep throughout the trips had failed, leaving him in a tired and irritable state. Apart from the copious amounts of coffee that was currently coursing through his veins, one of the only things keeping him awake was the music blaring from his old Sony Walkman.

The young diplomat-turned-Agent looked around the old station, people of varying ethnicities and races were milling about the station on what seemed like a perfectly normal day, although this was somewhat betrayed by the fact that there was an undeniable sense of dread hanging in air…

Marcus had heard a lot about this city, with his version being destroyed on Doomsday; he had to quickly get up to speed on the layout of the city, finding his way around New York as especially a pain. Although he remembered hearing a few anecdotes from a few of his fellow Agents mentioning that this city was the US capital in another universe, but that didn't matter now.

Marcus fidgeted with the ticket that he had in his hands, waiting for the train that would take him across the border to New Austria. After hearing about his assignment to this… rather peculiar universe, he was surprised to discover that what he had known as Mexico in his timeline was settled by the Austrians of all people, he wondered if he might encounter this universe's version of himself, probably having been born in Britain, unlike himself...

 _"_ _Not bloody likely…"_ he thought to himself, some of his counterpart's family were killed during the 'Terror' that he kept reading about, along with his grandfather, who'd managed to get himself killed during the attack on the British Isles in the 1940s.

Marcus sat on one of the benches, thinking about his previous experiences with the Americans in his own timeline, although many of them didn't call themselves American, they had the same ideals of liberty and freedom, something he could connect with on a political level. But then he also saw some of them with a bit of suspicion, being somewhat justified as it was the fault of the two _former_ superpowers as why his universe was one big mess…

The Americans in this universe had taken their stereotype of being obnoxious to its ultimate extreme, along with a tinge of ignorance and maybe a little bit of prejudice thrown in for good measure, being quite similar to the culture of his universe's America, albite the one from the 1950s. This somewhat annoying attitude contrasted with Marcus's snarky, if a little pessimistic personality, although at most times he was a positive person.

-0-

The train arrived, almost on cue, Marcus had been reading through a comic book to pass the time. He quickly put the book back in his bag and walked onto the train. Marcus eventually found a seat to sit on and put his bag onto the seat adjacent to him. He looked over the timetable, reading the arrival times and stops that would be happening while en-route to _Neu Wein_ , after being content with sleeping for most of the 27 hour trip, Marcus turned off his Walkman and fell into a much needed sleep…

Neu Austerlitz, Royal Dominion of New Austria, 13 and a-half-hours later…

 _"_ _Grüß Gott, Willkommen in Neu Austerlitz._ _We will be stopping to stock up on more refreshments and allow passengers to disembark should they wish to do so; we will be stopped for around 2 hours…"_

The droning voice of a young _Magyar_ accented woman nearly jolted Marcus awake, he blinked for a moment, trying to gather his wits as he slowly got out of his seat. _"Mein Gott…"_ he muttered to himself as he walked onto the platform, the blazing tropical sunlight disorientated his vision for a while as Marcus pulled out a pair of rarely used sunglasses and put them on.

He looked around for the nearest canteen or at the least, anywhere that served food. _"Hopefully better than that bland schnitzel I got served on the train…"_ Marcus thought to himself. Marcus looked at one of the signs; thankfully he could read the German portion of it, pointing to the nearby foodcourt. Marcus felt like he hadn't eaten for days, probably due to the fact that he'd slept through breakfast and the only thing that he'd eaten was that rather bland tasting schnitzel…

Marcus was too busy thinking about what he was going to eat as he nearly bumped into a peculiar looking man who was walking in the opposite direction to him. "Hey! Watch it, pal!" the American accented man stared at him as Marcus lifted up his glasses to get a better look at him. "Sorry 'bout that… _Verdammt Amerikaner…"_ Marcus looked at the young man as he stared at him for a moment, either wanting to size him up, or get something out of him. The American flashed him a grin as he walked over to another man who looked similar to him, although looking more quiet and reserved.

Marcus continued walking over to where the food courts were located, looking at whatever there was to eat, he wasn't that picky with his food choices, but he could definitely settle for some fish and chips... _"Here so soon, are we?"_ Claude flashed Marcus a cocky grin as he turned around to see his fellow Agent standing behind him.

 _"_ _I hope this food is to your liking…"_ Claude smiled as he handed Marcus a paper bag. _"You know me too well…"_ Marcus chuckled as he pulled out a burrito from the paper bag and started eating it. "How was the trip? Hopefully it wasn't too stressful…" Claude replied in accented English. Marcus finished his mouthful before replying "It was fine, although we still have another 12 hours to go before we get to Neu Wein"

"Good thing the higher-ups sent you here, America hasn't the best place to be for some of our other German speaking Agents…" Claude deadpanned, Marcus knew what he was talking about, the incidents that he'd faced in London seemed tame to what he was exposed too while on the streets of Philadelphia, no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't hide his German accent well enough to be seen as an ordinary Brit, leading to a few awkward moments.

"Anyway, the train is going to leave in an hour or so, so we gotta get going soon." Marcus said as he finished eating his burrito. Claude nodded in agreement as the pair started to walk back to the train. Marcus noticed the same man that he'd bumped into while walking to the foodcourt, the young man didn't notice the pair as they walked past him, but Marcus knew that he'd seen the man somewhere before…

Marcus walked back onto the train and sat down on his seat, moving his bag to allow Claude to sit next to him. Marcus pulled out the comic book he was reading earlier from his bag and started reading as the train started to move again.

Claude glanced over to see what Marcus was reading; the comic looked quite new, definitely not belonging to this universe, another thing he noticed, was that Marcus was wearing a pair of probably Agency-issued reading glasses, something that he hadn't noticed him wearing before. _"Who knew that he was into that stuff…"_ Claude mused to himself as he pulled out his own book and began reading it…

Neu Wein, Royal Dominion of New Austria,12 hours later…

After dumping their bags at their designated safe-house, Marcus and Claude decided to hit one of the nearby bars at Marcus's request. The pair walked into packed establishment, and sat at one of the nearby tables. Marcus began to read over the menu, hoping that there was any Scotch whiskey available…

Marcus was surprised about how much the city had reminded him of Linz and the other Austrian cities that he'd visited during his time in the Confederation, especially the time he'd spent with _her_.

Yet it still had the same atmosphere that he felt when he travelled to Mexico City on one of his first diplomatic missions with the League of Nations. The climate was more or less the same, but the people had brought back memories of both his home country and the rest of _Mittleeuropa._

 _"_ _I'll get the drinks; I assume that you want a glass of Scotch, ja?"_ Claude looked at Marcus as he was perusing the menu. _"Ja"_ he nodded in confirmation as Claude walked over to the bar get the drinks.

Marcus' his attention was suddenly brought to the now-open door of the bar. He saw a young man, bearing a passing resemblance to himself, sans the glasses and temporary stubble, which he'd, received from one-too-many-nights of studying, along with having swapped out his leather jacket for a normal suit jacket/tie combo.

The man was followed by a young blonde haired woman who very much resembled Lina, right down to the coat and her innocent looking façade, which probably hid the same strong-willed and somewhat perverted personality that he was accustomed to. He watched the pair walk over to the other end of the building and sat themselves down at one of the tables.

Claude walked back from the bar with a glass of whiskey in one hand and beer in the other. He sat down at the table and put the glass of whiskey in front of Marcus, who was looking at the young couple that were sitting at the other end of the building. Claude noticed this and tapped Marcus on the shoulder to get his attention.

Marcus jolted for a moment as he looked over to Claude. _"It seems that you've found your counterpart."_ The Liechtensteiner smirked as his fellow Agent started to sip from his glass of whiskey, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to the other side of the building…

Marcus heard another familiar voice, this time it was a more familiar one. Marcus watched the same bespectacled American that he'd bumped into a few hours ago walk past the building, followed by another similar looking man.

 _"_ _Keep my drink safe, will you?"_ Marcus gave Claude a somewhat disturbing grin as he walked out of the building, the Agent knew that something had caused him to snap from within. Although by the time he could snap himself out of his inner thoughts, Marcus had disappeared from view. Claude felt a lump in his throat as he rushed outside of the building; hoping that he could find Marcus before anything happened to him, or anyone else…


	5. Chapter 4: Remember Me

Flowers for Balaton, An Axis Power Hetalia/1983: Doomsday Fanfiction

(Chapter 4: Remember Me…)

Budapest, People's Republic of Hungary, October 1956

 _"_ _Örülök, hogy látlak... Oroszország…"_

Hungary sneered out of grim determination at the imposing figure standing before her and Roza. _"It seems that your little streak of independence is over…"_ the Russian accented personification gave the pair a cold, unfeeling grin as he walked closer towards them, brandishing a Kalashnikov that was armed with a deadly bayonet…

 _You should return to your fellow Warsaw Pact nations, I've already broken most of them… And I will now break you…"_

The cold, grinning nation known as Ivan Braginisky, or to others, Russia advanced towards Hungary. Elizaveta was frozen in pure terror as Ivan attempted to impale her on the bayonet; Hungary dodged him at the last minute, knowing that he could easily overpower her.

 _"_ _Your revolutionaries don't stand a chance against the might of the workers!"_ the Russian continued to stab his bayonet at the rebellious Hungarian, who was dodging every strike, while attempting to shoot Ivan with her own FEG 37M pistol. Roza was also dodging Ivan's stabbing, quickly darting around him and all the while hearing the voices argue in her head for dominance…

Hungary tried her hardest to match up to her opponent, but it was nearly impossible to hold her own against Russia, his indomitable strength had matched her stamina and ferocity, but it would only be a matter of time when the bayonet would finally hit its target.

 _"_ _Hopefully we can stall him, then we can make a run for it!"_ a voice chimed in as Roza felt Ivan's bayonet nearly impale her in the stomach, only avoiding it by a few centimetres. Hungary grinned at Ivan as she fired a few shots into his chest, causing him to flinch for a moment as Hungary stepped closer to him with every shot fired. _"At last, a weakness…"_

The bullets slamming into his chest had caught Ivan off guard, if only for a moment. Hungary was mere centimetres away from his face, with her pistol aimed point-blank at his forehead. _"I guess you've won, da~?"_ Russia gave Hungary an innocent smile as he dropped his rifle and slowly put his hands up.

 _"_ _You got that right… Most pedig hagyj békén..."_ The Hungarian grinned as she pulled the trigger on her pistol, unloading the last bullet into Ivan's head, watching the Nation's body slump to the ground was… morbidly amusing. Roza looked at Hungary as she walked over towards her, the Nation's face showing a somewhat disturbed, yet oddly reassuring smile.

 _"_ _Come, we must contact my boss. Hopefully Nagy has some kind of plan to get us to jump over the Iron Curtain…"_ The two women began walking to the ruined Parliament building that had seemingly managed to avoid sustaining any major damage, compared to the other buildings that had dotted the ruined skyline.

Roza certainly felt that something was off when she heard what she originally thought was footsteps, but she disregarded them as the pair continued to walk closer to the old building, not noticing that they were being followed…

Hungary was grinning, possibly out of pure ecstasy; after all, she'd always wanted to put a bullet in Ivan's head for a long time… Her thoughts were suddenly shattered by the sounds of loud footsteps, the source of which was meters away…

Roza let out a bloodcurdling scream as she laid eyes on their assailant, giving Hungary only mere moments to turn around, leaving her face frozen in pure terror... _"Nem… That's impossible…"_ Both women knew that there time was up as Hungary felt a sudden jolt of pain go through her body as she slumped to the ground, watching blood drip over her eyes, noticing that Roza had slumped to the ground next to her. Hungary felt her vision slowly fading to nothing, just as she heard what might have been some garbled Russian. Then, there was silence…

 _"_ _Kolkolkolkolkol…"_

-0-

Port Elizabeth, New Britain, August, 2015

 _"_ _Marcus… Marcus, wake up!"_ Francine shook the still unconscious body of her cousin. Marcus had been sleeping like a rock for most of the night. Lina had left the house to spend some time in the city alone, and probably do some shopping, leaving Frankie to watch over him. The Afrikaner was taken by surprised when she felt two strong hands gripping her neck, slowly squeezing the life out of her.

 _"_ _Marcus, please… It's me, Frankie!"_ the young woman struggled under his iron grip; Marcus's eyes had slowly shifted to a dark red hue, although showing a look of sadness and desperation. _"Ivan did this to me… I will have my revenge!"_ tears began welling up in his eyes as he stuttered the words in an odd Hungarian accent, all the while squeezing Francine's throat harder, making her struggle even more. _"Marcus! STOP!"_ Frankie continued to plead as her cousin continued to cycle between his conflicting personalities.

Frankie's pleading caused Marcus to snap back to reality. _"N-nein… Please… Not now…"_ he slowly loosened his hands around his cousin's throat as Frankie embraced him in a comforting hug. "It's going to be ok, I promise…" Frankie muttered as she held him tighter. _"I'm sorry…"_ Marcus sighed as Frankie held him close to her.

"Come on, let's have breakfast…" Frankie smiled as she helped her cousin off the bed and started walking to the kitchen. Marcus followed her to the kitchen as Frankie started looking through the fridge, trying to find something to eat. "How do pancakes sound?" Frankie gave Marcus a comforting smile as he sat down the breakfast table.

" _Ja…_ That would be great…" he smiled back at her, remembering the times that they'd spent together many years prior. Marcus read through one of the local newspapers, finding a few interesting headlines. A few news stories on the American Survivor-Nations caught his attention. Most of them mentioned the somewhat misguided attempts of CRUSA to fully recreate the United States. _"Bloody Americans… I guess they'll never learn…"_

Frankie put the plate of pancakes onto the table and sat down on the seat across from her cousin. Marcus put the newspaper aside and put a few of the pancakes on his plate. "So… How did you and Lina meet exactly?" the young Afrikaner started pouring some maple syrup onto her breakfast. "I met her on the streets of Brisbane when I got sent to the Commonwealth a few months ago…" Marcus sipped from his cup of coffee before continuing.

"She told me to go to the Alpine Confederation for some reason; I then ended up meeting Herr Edelstein and Herr Zwingli. Lina definitely takes after Vasch; they're both Swiss after all." "I can definitely see that" Frankie giggled. "You're pretty lucky to get a girl like that, although, I heard that your father didn't take it too well…"

Marcus nodded solemnly in confirmation as Frankie slowly chewed on one of the pancakes before sighing. "Thankfully Mum managed to shut him up before I could do something to him…" "I can't believe that you and your father still have that tension between you two, can't he just accept that you're not the British-to-your-bootstraps son he wanted?"

"At least the rest of our family supports us…" Marcus sighed as he finished his stack of pancakes, thinking about his father's reaction to his relationship with Lina had made him slip into a slight depression, and the incident with him and Frankie that had happened prior had also made him sink deeper into melancholy.

Marcus heard the voices echoing through his head again, this time, whispering suicidal thoughts; he suddenly felt a lack of control in his body _"Maybe you should just end it all…"_ Marcus felt the thought go through his head, one part of his subconsciousness seemingly agreed to it. But the more rational, less grief stricken part of his mind tried to object, but was silenced by a mere thought.

The voice spoke again, whispering into his troubled subconsciousness. _"Your father hates you, your cousin is scared of you, and your girlfriends see's you as a freak.. You're not worth living anymore..."_ Marcus felt the old, but still functioning Luger press against his chest, concealed within its shoulder holster as he slowly got out of the chair, shaking ever so slightly as he finished his coffee cup.

 _"_ _I'm going to get some fresh air…"_ Marcus smiled solemnly to his cousin as he walked out of the house. Frankie watched Marcus walk outside, he seemed to have an aura of melancholy surrounding him that started alarm bells ringing in her subconsciousness.

By the time Frankie had run out of the house, her cousin had disappeared. _"Typical of him, always sneaky…"_ the Afrikaner thought to herself, looking around for where, and more importantly, _what_ he was going to do. She hoped it wasn't what she thought it was…

-0-

Somewhere near Moscow, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, November, 1956

 _"_ _Useless… Inhuman… Just a Vengerskiy whore…"_

Roza was sleeping on the concrete floor of the cell she was kept in. The voices of her previous lives whispered into her troubled subconsciousness, some of them being sympathetic, while a few of them were more… malicious in nature.

Hungary was chained to the far end of the wall, she watched the Curse One sleep soundly, although that was occasionally interrupted by the occasional whimpering, Roza's face was stained with tears.

The guards of the ever-so-infamous Red Army were standing near the cells, some of them with an urge to harm or violate the two women that had already taken a lot of punishment from their urges, but at least it was the former of the two…

Roza slowly awoke to Elizaveta's warm, if damaged smile. The Cursed One slowly crept over to her, being unchained, unlike her nigh-immortal counterpart. _"You're alive, good…"_ Hungary held the young woman close to her as the guards watched them with suspicion. 

_"_ _The voices… Too much pain…"_ she sobbed into the Nation's shoulder. Hungary held the Roza in a comforting embrace as a familiar man advanced to their prison cell, his expression was what nightmares were made of, his cold, unfeeling grin seemed to implant itself into Hungary's subconsciousness…

 _"_ _Zdravstvuyte, Vengriya"_ Ivan opened the door of the cell, ripping the chains off Hungary's wrists. She felt a momentary jolt of pain as the metal snapped off, cutting a few gashes into her wrists.

The manacles were suddenly swapped for a pair of handcuffs as the personification of the Soviet Union began to drag her out of the cell, leaving Roza alone in the cell. _"You're coming with me… Guards! Take care of this… thing…"_ Ivan sneered at the _Magyar_ as Hungary looked at her, probably for the last time…

 _"_ _Remember me… Nővérem, húgom..."_

"He might do it Dad; we have to do something, before it's too late. We can't let Mr Wright go deeper into madness, or even attempt what I think he's going to do…"

"You're right… Alice, bring that friend of yours, Mr Wright might need some moral support."

"Also, Karenza, we're going to need your help too…"


	6. Chapter 5: First Encounters

Flowers for Balaton: An Axis Powers Hetalia/RDNA-verse Fanfiction

(Chapter 5: First Encounters)

Neu Wein, Royal Dominion of New Austria, April, 2023…

 _"_ _What should we do with him when we get to him…?"_ Roza smiled as she walked beside Marcus. _"We'll figure it out when we corner him…. Like the coward he is…"_ The pair had been following the two men for a while now, although the Canadian wasn't the priority, but his American sibling was definitely on the other end of the scale…

"For being a country full of Krauts, they certainly know how to make a good burger!" the personification of the American Federation smiled as he took another bite from the rather tasty looking burger. His brother was walking beside him at a brisk pace; trying to catch up to him, as Alfred continued to take the bites out of his burger.

"Slowdown will you!? _Mon dieu…_ " Matthew Williams sighed in _Quebecois_ French. The two nations had crossed the border over into the RDNA on a diplomatic mission, although Alfred had hoped that they didn't run into that mongrel _Kraut_ , Matthew knew that it was inevitable, one part of his mind had hoped for it anyway…

 _"_ _I'm surprised that we've managed to agree to something."_ Marcus gave Roza a somewhat forced grin, the Hungarian chuckled for a moment as she flashed him a similar look. _"As much as you don't want to do this…"_ she paused for a moment, lamenting her reply before continuing, this time with a more sadistic smile. _"…it's the only chance we have, that coward destroyed our lives, betrayed us… killed those close to us…"_

Marcus could only nod, as both sides of the fractured subconsciousness were strangely dormant, not doing the usual arguing. Maximillian was also silent, for being the mediator between the two hot-blooded personalities; he'd taken the side of neutrality once again, allowing the two to do as they pleased.

This worried the former German somewhat, along with Marcus and Roza's less-insane sides, which were being suppressed by the now-dominant and darker parts of their fractured psyches…

Meanwhile…

Claude von Falkenburg frantically ran through the streets, he knew that the higher-ups would not be happy if they found out about this; letting a mentally unstable Agent out in the public would blow their cover if he ended up laying his hands on a civilian, or God forbid, a Nation.

The Liechtensteiner rushed through the crowds of citizens, who were presumably enjoying a peaceful evening; he hoped that it would stay that way… Even after Marcus had said that the worst was over, he knew that he would still have to deal with the odd moments of mental and emotional instability. It seemed that this moment was one of them, and it certainly was a big one…

He spotted the Agent following two young, if somewhat familiar, men. Marcus had a disturbing grin on his face as he was trailing the pair; it seemed that he was interested in them for some reason. The two Nations seemed blissfully unaware of his presence. Claude knew that Marcus must have had some kind of unfortunate encounter with one of them in the past.

He knew that in their home timeline, Herr Jones had died during Doomsday, leaving behind an innumerable amount of Survivor-Nations in his wake; one of them was his daughter, no less. While Canada had weathered through the events that saw the death of some of his NATO allies, eventually becoming a father figure to some of the American Survivor-Nations, with some of them having developed a hatred for the former father.

 _"_ _What do you want with him…?"_ Claude thought to himself as he watched Marcus follow the two Nations, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

-0-

 _"_ _What would your girlfriend think of you…?"_ a voice whispered to Marcus's fractured subconsciousness, Marcus brushed off the voice with a single thought, he had no time for simple quarrels like that, he wanted revenge, and he wanted it now…

Marcus saw the two Nations stop for a moment, with Alfred walking to a nearby alleyway, presumably to dispose of the paper wrapping from his burger. The young man watched the Canadian walk to a nearby building, leaving his brother alone, _perfect for the taking…_

Marcus quickly, but silently, advanced towards the Nation. He saw that there weren't many people in the general area of the alleyway, so that gave him some leverage when it came to what he could do to the American, the alleyway also continued to another street, giving him an easy escape option in case things went downhill.

-0-

Alfred was somewhat distracted as he made an attempt to get the grease covered ball of paper into the bin, he missed. Grumbling at his short lived misfortune for a moment, the Nation walked over to the bin to pick the wrapping up and properly dispose of it, but he suddenly heard heavy footsteps, along with a quiet whistling that slowly got louder as an ominous figure began to advance towards him.

The discordant whistling reminded Alfred of a traditional song from before the Terror, but he couldn't think of where it was from… He could also pick out a few words, possibly quotes or phrases, but he was very sure that whoever what doing this wasn't the most stable of people…

 _"_ _Ich bin ein Preusse… kennt ihr meine Farben?"_ the voice sang in a slow, discorded melody as the owner of the voice came into view, seemingly through a bank of thick fog. _"This isn't real…"_ the American mused to himself. He was then snapped out of his thoughts when he recognized who he was; it was the same grouchy _Kraut_ that he'd bumped into when he was in Neu Austerlitz.

The American felt his knees buckle out of as he tried to flee, but somehow continued to stand stood stock still, either he was too stubborn to run, or he was truly afraid of what the man had in store for him… "You don't scare me; you're just one of those insane Krauts!" Alfred grinned at him as the man stopped, seemingly insulted by his outburst.

"What did you just call me…?" the Prussian said in a frightening mix of Hungarian and German accented English, although both of his accents seemed foreign to the American, the Hungarian had sounded like it had belonged in the old Crownlands, while his German sounded more like what an old aristocrat from Pre-Terror Germany would have spoken. Not to mention the unmistakable traces of what sounded like a British accent, also sounding rather upper-class, but with a small amount of another English dialect that he didn't recognise.

 _"_ _Great… He's a Kraut and a Limey…"_ the American Federation mused to himself as he reached for a nearby weapon, there was a lead pipe at the other end of the alleyway, but the strange man was too close to him to warrant making a run for the other end of the alleyway.

The insult only made the Prussian advance towards him at a quicker pace. Alfred was shocked when he looked into the eyes of his soon-to-be opponent, his eyes were a dark red hue, full of hate and sorrow, although that was somewhat betrayed by the fact that it seemed that there was a more friendly, more saner part of him, trying to escape…

Alfred was caught off guard as Marcus delivered a powerful punch to the American's jaw, causing him to stumble backwards. _"You fool…"_ Marcus laughed, this time showing no restraint as he grabbed Alfred by the collar of his jacket, holding him above the ground.

 _"_ _You betrayed us… Killed our families with nuclear fire! Believe it or not, we're going to teach you a lesson, Herr Jones…"_ Marcus threw the Nation to the ground as he began to kick at him with an almost animal like ferocity, all the while laughing like a maniac. Alfred knew that he couldn't withstand the vicious assault any longer; he had to act before he got knocked out, if he did, then who knows what he would do to him…

Marcus continued to kick America in the ribs and stomach, repeatedly knocking the wind out of the now-weakened Nation. Alfred felt the kicking stop as his assailant stood over him, still staring at him with a disturbing grin. Marcus was clearly basking in the glory of what he'd just accomplished. _"You call yourself a hero…"_ the Prussian grinned as he watched the American slowly stand to his feet, his face was bruised and battered, and a thin trail of blood was flowing from his nose, making Marcus want to laugh even more. He'd managed to _hurt_ America, something he thought he would never pull off.

"This Hero still has some fight left in him!" the American looked at him with the same look of determination that he always had. Alfred attempted to land a punch on Marcus's face, almost scoring a direct hit, if it wasn't for Marcus dodging him at the last minute. "Too slow~" the Prussian taunted him as he continued to dodge each punch that the Nation had in store for him.

"I knew that you Krauts were crazy!" Alfred retorted as he managed to land an almost bone breaking punch into Marcus' jaw, nearly throwing the man off balance. He was surprised that the Nation had managed to fight back; this only fuelled his bloodlust even more, ever increasing his dark desire to put Alfred down, _permanently…_

 _"_ _You and Ivan killed us… Made us go through hell…"_ Marcus hissed as he pinned the man to the wall, still consumed by pure vengeance and insanity. The mention of Ivan's name took Alfred by surprise, that name hadn't been used for generations. "What are you!?" Alfred struggled against Marcus as he began to strangle the life out of him. _"We are many things… Insanity, madness, regret…"_ his voice trailed off as he gave Alfred a malicious grin as he threw the man into the wall adjacent to him.

The impact of the American's body against the brick wall cut a gash into the back of Alfred's head, causing him to bleed out as Marcus walked towards him, laughing manically. _"Gut Nacht… Amerika…"_ he flashed him a grin as he slowly walked away as Alfred slowly fell into unconsciousness.

Marcus quickly ran towards the other end of the alleyway, hoping to have made a clean getaway, which it looked like he would succeed at. His thoughts of a victory were quickly cut short as he felt a bullet rip through his shoulder; he whipped his head around to face his attacker, it seemed that _Herr Williams_ had caught up with him. Marcus stumbled for a moment as he tripped over and collapsed onto the ground, making the pain from the bullet anger him even more as he struggled to get up, although he was quickly subdued by a sudden stinging sensation as he saw two familiar faces stand over him.

 _"_ _Nice shot, although the nano-cubes could've done it painlessly…"_ Claude sighed as he looked at Marcus's unconscious body, his face covered in blood and tears, along with the odd bruise or scrape. _"No problem, Monsieur Falkenburg, let's get Monsieur Wright and my Brother out of here, before we attract attention…"_

 _"_ _Mein Gott, Marcus… What have you done…!? I never knew that you were that strong…"_


	7. Chapter 6: Facing the Void

p class="MsoNormal"span style="text-decoration: underline;"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Flowers for Balaton, An Axis Powers: Hetalia/1983: Doomsday Fanfiction/span/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span style="text-decoration: underline;"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"(Chapter 6: Facing the Void)/span/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="text-decoration: underline;"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Port Elizabeth, New Britain, August, 2015/span/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Lina was walking through the streets of Port Elizabeth. The day had gone by rather quickly, after leaving Frankie to deal with her boyfriend, she'd managed to get some shopping done before dusk had set in. The young Swiss woman sat down on one unoccupied benches. A faded 'Whites Only' sign had been hastily scratched off, reminding her that not too long ago, this nation was an unequal one… /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"A black sedan stopped in front of the bench she was sitting at, Lina looked up at the car as a familiar woman got out of the car and walked towards her. em"Miss Worth?" /emthe Afrikaner accented woman looked at her with a somewhat tense expression. em"Fraulein Kirkland? What a surprise…" /emLina smiled at the Nation as she got off the bench and walked over to her. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""This is of the upmost importance; it concerns your boyfriend…" Alice looked at Lina with a straight face; although it looked like that she would break down at any moment. "Frankie is waiting for us; she's not feeling too well…"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Lina looked at Alice in shock as she thought about what she'd said to her. Lina walked towards the car at a brisk pace, with Alice following close behind. Lina got into the car, finding that Frankie was sitting next to her, trying to hold back the tears. "He's gone…" the Afrikaner stammered through the tears that were welling up in her eyes. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""Gone…?" Lina shut the car door as it sped off to an unknown location. She held the woman in a comforting hug as Frankie continued the cry into her shoulder. "Marcus has gone missing, something must have snapped in him… He seemed to be depressed…" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""We gotta find him before he does something… drastic…" Lina sighed as she continued to hold Frankie. The Afrikaner nodded slowly. "I'm not too sure where we're going…" Frankie muttered as the car quickly sped past the town square, eventually stopping near a small house. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"A chauffeur opened the car's door, letting Lina, Alice and Francine out of the car. Frankie looked at the small house as she was taken by surprise when she heard a voice coming from behind her. "Smith?" the young woman turned around to see the former Briton getting out of the driver's seat. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""Do you have any idea where my cousin is?" she gave the blonde haired man a somewhat depressed look. "I… I don't know…" the assistant felt a lump in his throat as he watched Frankie close to crying again, he had to say something before she became an emotional wreck… /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""But that's why we're here, Frankie… Alice has decided to get some of her family members together for a little meeting. Hopefully we can find where he is…" Smith took the young woman's hand as the pair walked inside the old colonial-era home./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""Welcome to my home…" Alice sighed to herself as she led the small group inside. em"Karenza!" /emthe Nation yelled out as a young girl, who from Lina's point of view, looking like she was in her late teens; walked out of a nearby room and moved over to the group. She wore a khaki jacket along with a skirt that had a tartan pattern; the girl glanced over to Lina, Frankie and Smith as she sighed for a moment. "This is our motley crew, eh?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';" Alice nodded as the teenaged Nation looked at her with suspicion before adopting a more serious, but also somewhat domineering tone in her voice. "This is one of my long-time associates that we're lookin' for…" the girl looked like she was about to breakdown for a moment as she managed to hold back the tears, if only for a moment. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""We gotta get going, we all have our reasons to find Marcus and he certainly won't be an easy catch…" the woman walked out of the house at a brisk pace and got into the car as she waited for the others to catch up to her. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Lina got into the car and sat next to the girl, Frankie followed the pair into the back as Smith and Alice got into the front of the car. "Umm… Miss…?" Francine looked at the young lass with an inquisitive look. "Marcus hasn't mentioned you, as far as I know…" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"The girl flashed a grin at the Afrikaner. "We go way back… Family wise, that is." Frankie raised an eyebrow as the rather cocky girl, who was definitely hiding her real, more stressful emotional state. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""You know about your Aunt's heritage, right?" Karenza looked at Frankie as she nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, Cornish heritage, she's from Penzance, although I do know that she owns an old estate in Truro..." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""You're a smart one Miss de Klerk, I'll give you that. Your Auntie's family and I go back a few centuries, mainly participated in the smuggling and mining business when Dad was beating up that bloody Frog at Trafalgar. Although it was mainly the dishonest work that made the William's quite well known back in 'ol emKernow/em…" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""Great… So my aunt is descended from criminals…"Frankie sighed for a moment, trying to emphasise the sarcasm in her voice. "That's only partially true, but I digress…" Cornwall sighed as she adjusted her jacket. "Anyway… I just hope that we find Marcus before he actually does it…" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Lina continued to be on the lookout for Marcus, who seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Although, even though it was only for a moment, Lina finally spotted Marcus, who was making his way through an alleyway. "STOP THE CAR, VERDAMMT!" Lina yelled at the top of her lungs, Smith slammed his foot on the brake at the same moment the Swiss woman yelled out her command. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Lina kicked open the car door and bolted out of the car, breaking into a full blown sprint as she attempted to catch up to her lover, who was climbing up a fire escape that was mounted on a small apartment block. "Lina, wait!" Alice got out of the car next, followed by Smith, Karenza and Frankie. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Thanks to Lina's military training, she continued to sprint down to street, watching Marcus climb to the top of the building. She started to climb the stairs with rapid, almost animal like speed. By the time she'd reached to top, her three compatriots had barely reached the bottom of the building. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""MARCUS!" Lina ran over to her boyfriend, who'd started to position himself at the other edge of the building. She noticed that he was gripping the antique pistol tightly as he turned around to face her, his face was stained with tears, and maybe a little bit blood, but she wasn't sure. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"But what was noticeable was the look of terror that was etched across his face. "Stay back, verdammt!" Marcus pointed his Luger at Lina with a look of desperation; it seemed that he was on the verge of insanity once again…/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""Bitte, lieben… Stay calm…" /span/emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Lina looked at Marcus as he slowly lowered the pistol, for a moment she thought that he'd calmed down, but to her immediate surprise, and shock, Marcus held the gun underneath his jaw, knowing that it anyone would get near him, he would fire…/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""You don't know what it's like! I'm constantly on the verge of hurting you, Lina… Roza's playing me like a damn fiddle! The world would be better off without me anyway…" Marcus continued to hold the gun, although Lina knew that he wouldn't have the guts the pull the trigger… /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""Re Piran…" /span/emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Karenza looked at Lina, who was seemingly on the verge of going over to Marcus and hugging him, iregardless of the consequences. But she knew that a Cursed One was a being that was not to be trifled with, especially in unstable situations such as this./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""I'm so sorry… Mein lieben…." /span/emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Marcus uttered what would seem like one last tearful response as he slowly pulled the trigger, but to his surprise, he was met with a click from the old pistol. em"No ammunition, but how…?"/emLina thought to herself as Marcus slowly lowered his pistol and he threw it to the side, the gun slide over to Karenza's feet, who then swiftly picked up the gun and pocketed it. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""K-kernow...?" /span/emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Marcus stuttered as he laid eyes on the young woman, who cautiously walked over to the emotionally unstable Prussian and gave him a comforting hug. em"Drog yw genev…" /emMarcus stammered through the tears as he nearly collapsed from the emotional strain that he'd managed put himself through. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""One emotional mess after another... I can't believe this is the way the world works now…" a disembodied voice sighed as Alice and Karenza looked around for its source. "Took you long enough to appear…" Alice sighed for a moment as an almost ethereal blonde-haired man with an odd set of rather thick eyebrows appeared in front of the group. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""I'm sorry for not appearing as soon as you wanted; I had to deal with some unforeseen consequences, but at least Miss Hungary was able to help in that regard." The former Nation known as England gave a somewhat warm smile, being somewhat contradictory when compared to his usually snarky personality./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""No fucking way…" Marcus looked at the almost ghostly presence, his parents had told him of the former Nation when he was a child, but he never thought that he would encounter him. His late night encounter with Elizaveta reminded him that some Nation's didn't want to leave the life that they'd left behind. At least he now knew that she wasn't the exception… /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""Now…" Arthur Kirkland looked at Marcus with a rather stern, if welcoming expression on his face, the Nation certainly saw traces of his looks and personality in the young man, along with sharing other features with a certain German speaking albino. England knew that he would have a rocky road ahead, but at least it was starting to get better, if at a very slow rate./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""How about we all go back to my daughter's house to discuss what happens next to Mr Wright…" Arthur looked at the small group as Alice nodded to her father in confirmation as he looked over to Lina and Francine. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""I know that you two are going to have a lot of questions, so feel free to ask them once we've gotten back to Alice's home… Oh, and Marcus…" England pulled out a small, rectangular object from his old, tattered RAF uniform and threw it at his chest. Marcus looked at the small item with a shocked expression, immediately recognising what it was. "How did you…?" he looked at the man with surprise as Arthur flashed him a grin. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""I had to stop you, Marcus, one way, or another…" the former Nation started to walk towards the other end of the building, where the fire escape was located. Marcus threw the small object over to Karenza, who quickly pocketed the item along with his pistol. "Keep it safe, will you?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"-0-/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="text-decoration: underline;"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Somewhere near Moscow, Union of Socialist Soviet Republic, November 1956…/span/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""You're a worthless whore; your little revolution has failed, and our glorious Union stands triumphant over your defeated Nation…" /span/emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"a Soviet guard shot Roza a cold, unfeeling grin. The young Hungarian had just seen Russia drag Elizaveta way, presumably to be brutally interrogated by the KGB, or even Ivan himself./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"Roza felt a jolt of pain go through her body as the butt of a rifle impacted into her ribs, the impact of which made a sickening crunching noise as she felt a few of her ribs snap. "Comrade Braginsky told us to take care of you…" the guard pointed to his compatriot, who was grinning at her with an almost gleeful, sadistic grin./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"The young Hungarian struggled to stand up as the overwhelming sense of pain coursed through her body, it seemed that she would spend her final moments alone and surrounded by her tormentors./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""Since we have to follow orders…" one of the guards muttered nonchalantly as he held his rifle in front of Roza as she struggled to get to her feet, which he found rather amusing. The older man slammed the butt of his Kalashnikov into Roza's face, he watched as her injured body collapsed against the concrete wall. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""…We have to carry them out, but to not do so…" the man knelt down in front of Roza's face, staring at her with almost no emotion. "…would result in what you're currently experiencing…" the guard laughed as Roza spat in the man's face, but he seemed unfazed by her response. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""Very well… If only your beloved Hungary got to see you in this state…" /span/emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"the man chuckled as he walked out of the cell, leaving her with the second, seemingly more unstable guard. em"Dimitri, keep the woman alive, unless Comrade Ivan gives any other orders…" /emthe younger man nodded as he grabbed a nearby chair and dragged it over to the cell so it gave him full view of Roza's bruised body. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';""I'll leave you two alone…" /span/emspan style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"the guard gave the pair a sadistic smile as he closed the door, leaving Roza alone with a seemingly unstable guard. But she certainly knew, from that point on, that her time was up…/span/p 


	8. Chapter 7: Forgive Me

Flowers for Balaton, an Axis Powers: Hetalia/RDNA-verse Fanfiction

(Chapter 7: Forgive Me…)

Neu Wein, Royal Dominion of New Austria, April, 2023…

 _"_ _I thought you died alone, a long, long time ago… Oh no, not me… I never lost control. You're face to face… With the man who sold the world…"_

Marcus couldn't quite figure out where he was. One of the last things he could remember was being on the receiving end of a bullet and drifting in and out of consciousness. _"_ _Maybe I've finally lost of the fucking plot…"_ he mused to himself.

Marcus looked over to his Walkman, which was playing some old Pre-Doomsday synth music. He stopped the tape and slowly eased himself upright on the couch he was laying on. He suddenly felt a jabbing pain in his shoulder, only then to realise that he was shirtless and had a bandage wrapped around his torso.

Marcus glanced over to a sleeping Claude; it seemed that the Liechtensteiner had fallen asleep while watching over him. Marcus grabbed his jacket and Walkman, along with a spare t-shirt that he'd packed, leaving his glasses and neatly folded undershirt on the table next to him. After managing to take a bullet only a few hours prior, Marcus felt famished and lethargic, he needed something to eat, even if he was seriously injured.

He knew of a few nearby takeaway establishments that he'd passed when he and Claude had dropped their belongings off at the safehouse they were staying at. Even though Claude and the higher ups wouldn't approve of his behaviour, it wouldn't hurt to get a bite to eat, would it?

Marcus grabbed a nearby pen and paper and wrote down a short message to Claude, if he ever woke up when he was away. He then plugged in the bulky set of headphones and switched the tape around before leaving the safehouse.

The streets of Neu Wein were packed, even this early in the morning. The multi-lingual melting pot that was the RNDA was thrusted right into Marcus's face as the sensory overload nearly overwhelmed him as he stumbled out onto the pathway.

It reminded him of his first trip to the Commonwealth to meet his Uncle, who'd managed to survive the nuking of Sydney and was living in Brisbane, where most of the American and Chinese communities were residing.

Marcus eventually adjusted to the glaring tropical sun and the loud bustling crowds of people. as he started to walk to a nearby döner kebab establishment. The smell of roasting meat and the constant usage of Turkish from the staff brought back memories of that one shop that he used to frequent in Berlin.

Marcus ordered a chicken kebab that had enough hot sauce caked on it to kill a normal human being. He sat down at a nearby chair and started eating his meal as he noticed a familiar face walk into the building.

Marcus's RDNA counterpart was perusing over the menu, probably wanting to order the same thing as he had, thankfully he put his name down as _'_ _Wilhelm Mueller'_ , which he'd used in the past for getting through certain situations.

His counterpart walked over to the cashier as he ordered his kebab, not noticing that Marcus was watching him from a distance, all the while chewing on his own kebab. He overheard one of the cashiers talking with his counterpart, mentioning something about his resemblance to 'the strange looking New Austrian'.

 _"_ _Verdammt…"_ Marcus muttered to himself as his counterpart walked past him, who was giving him an odd look as the Prussian was too busy internally screaming. _"_ _Remember your cover!"_ He flashed the younger man a nervous grin just as he managed to stabilize his various arguing personas.

"Can I help you…? _Monsieur?_ " Marcus's RNDA counterpart sat down at the table as the other Marcus was attempting to collect his wits. "I'm fine, just trying to stay awake…" Marcus chuckled nervously as he yawned for a moment.

"Tell me about it, I've had the odd amount of sleepless nights lately…" the young Canadian replied as he sipped from a cup of coffee. Marcus noticed a lot of _Quebecois_ influences in the young man. It seemed that his family had survived the Red Invasion of Britain after all, but had fled to Canada in the process…

"Come to think of it… I think I remember seeing you at that bar last night…" Marcus's counterpart looked at him suspiciously as he chewed on his kebab. "I could say the same about you too…" Marcus finished his kebab as the pair looked at each other for a few seconds.

"I just came here from New Africa a few days ago for work related reasons…" Marcus's Canadian counterpart nodded as he accepted his lie, not knowing his true, if somewhat misguided intentions.  
"I see. I guess that being that long on a plane for that long would definitely make someone thirsty for a pint or two…" his counterpart smiled, knowing what it was like to travel. Marcus was distracted by his discussion with the young man to notice a familiar looking blonde walk into the building.

 _"_ _Gut morgen, leiben~"_ the girl smiled as she rested her head on his counterpart's shoulder, making him blush. Marcus couldn't help but give him a sympathetic smile, knowing that his version of Lina did similar things… "I'd like you to meet my girlfriend, Lina Worth-Ackerman."

The girl waved at him as she whispered something in his counterpart's ear before walking to the cashier to probably order some breakfast. "She's a nice lass; descended from French nobility, or so I've heard… Her parents work with the Swiss Revivalist movement, although both of us have intersecting jobs with the AWF, so we get sent of assignments a lot, usually together." Marcus's counterpart smiled as he finished off his cup of coffee.

"Must be pretty hectic, working as a diplomat… Not that I'd know of course." Marcus chuckled as his counterpart nodded in agreement. Marcus checked his watch for a moment, _"_ _Shit… Claude's gonna kill me…"_ he internally cringed as he managed to keep a composed façade.

"I apologise for leaving so soon, but one of my associates is expecting to see me very, very soon" Marcus grinned as his counterpart looked at him with an understanding look. "I understand, _Dha weles diwettha_ " he nodded as Marcus got out of his seat, grabbing what he thought was his wallet.

 _"_ _Dha weles skon…"_ Marcus muttered under his breath as he walked over to the cashier to pay for his meal. He flipped through his wallet, only to find an old black and white photo of his cousin, Frankie, albeit slightly younger. He knew that he never had a photo of her in his wallet, but what was odd about it was the writing, scrawled in black marker. "Where are you…?" the text read. The unknown meaning of which perplexed Marcus even more.

He knew that South Africa had fallen to a fascist-esque regime sometime during the early 20th Century, despite not being able to pinpoint the date, due to him falling asleep halfway through a university lecture when he was in the UK.

Despite having a bout of insomnia in that seemingly crucial moment, he did manage to pick something up about the nation being taken over by the Reds around a decade ago. Marcus thought that Frankie was living in Canada, but it seemed that it wasn't the case…

He immediately felt sorry for his counterpart, not knowing whether his beloved cousin was alive or not probably had put a considerable weight on his shoulders, and the rushed handwriting on the back of the photograph certainly proved it.

 _"_ _Monsieur, I do apologise, but we seem to have a bit of a mix-up going on…"_ Marcus was startled when he saw his counterpart holding his wallet in his right hand; the young Quebecois was more shocked when he saw Marcus holding the photo of Frankie.

"G-give that to me, now, dammit!" he stuttered as Marcus quickly handed over the photo and wallet, with his counterpart handing over his. "I'm sorry… It must be hard for your, whatever's happened to her, I am truly sorry, Herr Wright"

"I accept your apology… Now, I must be with my lover…" Marcus walked over to his version of Lina and sat down. He looked like he was on the verge of breaking down… Marcus quickly exited the building with numerous questions flooding his head, mainly about what had happened to this timeline's version of Frankie, but he was more interested in getting back to the safehouse before Claude woke up…

The Agent eventually made his way to the safehouse. Marcus, who was almost out of breath from running the whole distance from the kebab restaurant, opened the door of the safehouse to meet the gaze of one Claude von Falkenburg.

Marcus froze for a moment, trying to say something to the older Agent as Claude sighed. "I was going to go look for you…" the Liechtensteiner kept the door open for Marcus, signalling him to enter.

"…But since you decided to show up, and without any serious injuries, you may as well come in, Marcus…" Claude continued as his fellow Agent entered the house, leaving Claude to close the door behind him. _"_ _Danke…"_ Marcus smiled for a moment before easing himself down onto a chair.

"I managed to talk to my counterpart; he's an interesting guy…" Marcus said as Claude looked at him. "Hopefully that cover story worked out for you." Marcus nodded in confirmation as he took his jacket off, revealing the bandages and pressure pad that were covering the wound.

Marcus sighed for a moment; the wound brought back memories of his savage attack on Alfred a few hours prior. "I know it wasn't your fault… The higher-ups aren't going to know about this; otherwise our operations in this universe could be ceased, permanently" Claude looked at Marcus as he adjusted the dressing, causing Marcus to wince in pain.

"As far as Alfred and Matthew know, they were attack by a drunkard who was just roaming the streets…" Marcus nodded in confirmation. "The less they hear, the better…" he huffed. "I might as well stay here and try to let this wound heal… I probably won't be hungry until dinner…"

Claude nodded. "I'm not going anywhere; I guess we can talk about you-know-who again..."  
 _"_ _I heard that!"_ Claude was taken by surprise when he noticed Roza standing behind him. _"_ _We're both ashamed of our actions, Claude. We certainly need to talk…"_

-0-

 _"_ _Marcus! We have to get going!"_ a familiar voice yelled out. Marcus's RNDA counterpart had just managed to settle down for a good night's sleep, only to be interrupted by an odd dream. He looked around in confusion as his cousin was dragging him through the streets of a city that he didn't recognise.

 _"_ _Where the fuck am I?!"_ he thought to himself. Marcus had no control over the body, being forced to watch through the eyes of his Doomsday-verse counterpart. His cousin stopped dragging him as a large crowd of people came into view. The crowds were waving odd versions of the Union Jack as a rather elegant looking limousine drove past with a middle aged man sticking the upper half of his body out of said car and waving at the crowd.

 _"_ _God save the King!"_ Marcus heard some people in the crowd chant, with Frankie being among them. The whole crowd was cheering for what Marcus assumed was their monarch, although this version of Frankie was different, compared to the photos that he'd seen of her in the past.

Marcus certainly felt out of place, possibly seeing through the eyes of what could be another past life of his… He'd always been fearful of his sanity when he was around others, along with his somewhat depressed state as he tried to discover whether his cousin was alive or not.

"Are you alright, Marcus?" Francine looked at her cousin, who'd seemingly zoned out for a few minutes. "I'm fine, Frankie" Marcus replied. His RNDA counterpart noted how odd his accent sounded, kind of like a British accent with a few subtle hints of Prussian German hidden somewhere…

"Off with the faeries again?" the Afrikaner giggled as Marcus smiled back at her as he rolled his eyes. "Well… It's great to see you again, Frankie, it really is…" he smiled at the older woman as she did the same. "It was great seeing you too, cousin" she smiled and pulled him into a hug as Marcus felt his grip on reality slipping away…

-0-

"Marcus, wake up!" Lina shook her lover as he slowly awoke from the weird dream he'd just had. "What is it, love?" he sighed as he looked into the young New Austrian's eyes, the dream had felt so real.

"You must've been dreaming about Frankie again… It's alright, Marcus, I'm here for you…" Lina sighed as she pulled her lover into a tight hug, hoping to stop another breakdown. "Thank you…" the Canadian sighed as he gave Lina a quick kiss on the cheek.

"She's still out there, Lina… I know she is. Even if she's been kidnapped by those fucking Reds…" Marcus snapped as he heard a familiar voice whispering in his subconsciousness, trying to calm him as another voice countered with more malicious thoughts.

 _"_ _Stay calm, leiben…"_ Lina sighed as she held Marcus's hand. It seemed that it would be a long night for the pair, and a very, very stressful night at that…


	9. Chapter 8: The Sins Never Die

Flowers for Balaton, an Axis Powers: Hetalia/1983: Doomsday Fanfiction.

(Chapter 8: The Sins Never Die…)

Port Elizabeth, New Britain, August, 2015.

"For those who wish to stay with us, we have NBBC Radio playing some Pre-Doomsday tracks until 8.30 in the morning while a full news bulletin will be available at 7.30 am... From the crew here at NBBC One, we wish you all a good night…"

Marcus was jolted awake by the TV test pattern blaring out 'God Save the King', Alice had told him that the old television had a tendency to increase the volume at random moments. Even though she gave up her room for him to sleep in, he insisted that he would sleep on the couch.

The Prussian grumbled for a moment as he got lazily rolled off the couch ended up straight onto the floor. He was starting to regret his decision even more…

While Marcus was making an attempt to gather his wits after a somewhat graceful fall off the couch, Arthur, Alice and Karenza were drinking tea as Lina had her head on the table, having passed out from a complete lack of sleep.

"It's great to see that you're still alive, Alice… Hopefully King Andrew's been treating you well…" Cornwall said sarcastically as she started chewing on a pastie.

"King Andy? He's a decent monarch…" Alice Kirkland replied as her father, Arthur seemingly nodded in agreement. "At least those bloedige Imperials got kicked out in the last election… Never liked 'em anyway…"

Marcus walked into the kitchen, still in a dazed state. "I told you to sleep in my room, but I guess that's karma for you…" Alice flashed the diplomat a grin as she pulled up a chair for him to sit on.  
Marcus sat next to Alice as she pulled out a bottle of whiskey for him to drink. "Here… You'll need it" Marcus took the bottle and opened it, taking a swig from the bottle.

"I hope that discussion went well…" Marcus looked at Arthur as he fidgeted with the whiskey bottle.  
"Francine had some trouble trying to accept your splintered psyche; she'll need some time to get around to it. The whole concept is baffling, even to us Nations… You're linked to us, somehow…" Arthur finished chugging a pint of beer.

"…Alfred mentioned that he'd met a few Cursed One's, so has Ludwig, heck, most of the Nations up there and down 'ere had at least met one over the centuries…"

"Frankie's sleeping in one of the spare bedrooms; hopefully she's going to be ok…" Alice chimed in. "She nearly had a breakdown while you were having another nightmare, too much for her to handle…"  
Marcus ran his fingers through Lina's hair as she continued to sleep soundly, occasionally muttering something that the group couldn't recognise. "At least Lina's taking this well… Although to be fair, she's had to put up with you more than anyone else…" Karenza muttered.

 _"_ _Hopefully this incident doesn't change anything between us…"_ Marcus thought to himself as he continued to stroke Lina's hair. He felt a great deal of sadness and regret after the incident, and the nightmares he was having while sleeping weren't helping one bit, neither were the attempts to keep his emotions to himself...

Lina slowly opened her eyes, meeting Marcus's gaze as she hugged his shoulder. "Evening, Marcus…" she yawned, looking into his eyes, which had started to take on a few shades of brown, probably due to Roza possessing him one-too-many-times.

"What time is it…?" Lina sighed as she continued to snuggle up to Marcus's arm, making him blush. _"_ _Quarter-past midnight, leiben…"_ Marcus smiled as he kissed her forehead. "I thought you were sleeping…" Lina sighed as she sipped from an open can of beer.

"I was too busy having nightmares…" Marcus chuckled with a somewhat forced use of English cynicism as he sipped from his own bottle of whiskey. "I can't believe Roza had to go through that…" Lina sighed as she gripped his arm, taking him by surprise.

Marcus stuttered for a moment before trying to regain composure. "D-did she tell you about what happened to her…?" Lina nodded as Marcus slowly got out of his chair, shaking as he did so.

"Are you alright?" Arthur looked at the diplomat as he shook his head slowly. _"_ _I might turn in for the night..."_ the three Nation's nodded as Lina pulled Marcus into a tight hug, trying to make him change his mind.

"Sleep well… Marcus…" she sighed as she let him go, but not before planting a kiss on his cheek.  
As Marcus made his way to the bedroom that Alice had previously insisted that he were to sleep in, he felt someone tap his shoulder, nearly making him jump.

Roza was standing behind him, albeit without her beret and combat knife. "I had to tell them, Marcus. It was the only way…" the young Magyar stuttered, being awfully close to breaking down.

 _"_ _Bitte... Roza… You don't have to cry."_ Marcus sighed as he led the Hungarian into the bedroom and sat down on the bed. _"_ _Stay strong, verdammt"_ Marcus hugged Roza tightly as the latter started sobbing, with the former not too far behind…

 _"_ _Elnézést…"_ Roza stuttered as she held onto her host body as they felt the darkness taking over once again…

Somewhere near the outskirts of Belfast, Northern Ireland, September 25th, 1983…

"Oi!, Darc'!" an Irish accent man toting an AK-47 walked towards the aforementioned Irishman with a stern expression. "Have you got those bombs ready?"

"Yes, they're ready" the man nodded as he slowly moved a large crate towards a utility truck that was full of improvised explosives.

"You're just like my brother, you know. Before that bloody witch silenced him back in 79'!" the older man snapped to his young early-30-something protégé. "Hopefully we'll show Ms. Thatcher whose boss, and then Ulster will belong to Erie once again! Now, move out!"

The pair got into the utility truck and started driving towards the city, the lights of Belfast were not-to-far-off into the distance, and they would at least have about 1 and a half hours to go before they reached their designated target.

"Mind turning on the radio, Darc'?" the man known as Fergus McNamara grinned as his subordinate nodded and switched the radio on. Some kind of news report mentioned something about incoming Soviet missiles; the pair disregarded the message, writing it off as some kind of joke.

"Turn this shite off…" the Irishman groaned as the utility truck came to a stop at what seemed to be a military checkpoint of some sort. Darcy turned the radio off as he got out of the truck as a British police officer approached the young man.

"Well, well, well… What are you lot doing 'ere?" the Welsh accented officer looked at the man's military fatigues and holstered pistol. Hopefully the SAS uniforms and weapons that they'd smuggled in from Galway hid their true motives…

"Just a bunch of SAS commandos passing through, we're transporting some weapons to aid the police department in Belfast. We can't be too careful with those IRA buggers running 'round the place…"  
"Stand down, Hathaway!" a young woman walked towards Darcy with a suspicious, almost inhuman stare. "I know an IRA soldier when I see one!"

Fergus got out of the truck, aiming his Kalashnikov at the police officer, while Darcy aimed his old pistol at the mysterious woman. "Stay back yer bloody sheep fucker!" Hathaway shuddered as he dropped his service revolver and got on his knees, pleading for his life.

"We have 50 kilos of explosives in the back of his truck! Move, and we'll detonate it!" Fergus yelled, gesturing to Hathaway to face his back to him.

Just as Fergus was about to finish off the 'sheep fucker' a tremendous boom along with a near-blinding flash of light nearly overwhelmed the group, with Fergus being knocked onto his back. "Looks like those Red bastards finally did it…"

"It seems that we have some hostages to take care of…" Darcy grinned as he faced the young woman, who was coughing up blood as he noticed a large, almost throbbing scar on the right side of her face.

 _"_ _Buíochas le Dia..."_ the woman shuddered before she fell unconscious from the shock and pain. "Ferg'! We gotta get to safety!" Darcy grimaced as he picked up the young woman, her heartbeat was faint, but it was still there, barely…

 _"_ _Too fuckin' right!"_ he yelled out in Gaelic as he looked over to Hathaway, who'd collapsed and was shaking from what he'd seen.

"Leave him; he's too weak to come with us. Bring the girl, we're going to need her…" Fergus sighed as he watched the mushroom cloud form in the distance.

Darcy nodded as he put the young woman in the back of the truck. Darcy got into the driver's seat with Fergus quickly jumping into the passenger side as the truck quickly drove away from the area…

"Be careful, we still have those explosives on board!" Fergus said in a somewhat panicked tone, which was an odd departure from his usually tough attitude. "I know, but we gotta get out of here before the radiation gets to us! Didn't you watch any of those old 'Duck and Cover' movies in school?!"

"'Course I fucking did!" Fergus snapped at the young man. A small hamlet came into view about an hour after their argument over the amount of radiation that they'd managed to absorb.

"We have to ditch those fucking explosives; otherwise we're going to be kicked out of this place before we know it!" Fergus panicked as he jumped out of the truck and started to slowly ease the crates of explosive out of the tray and slowly piling the crates into a nearby ditch, which was deep enough to bury the explosives at a later date. That is if they didn't go off...

Just as Fergus had put the last of the crates into the ditch, Darcy had managed to get the young woman to a seemingly abandoned cottage. One of the village's few inhabitants poked their heads outside of their sealed up house, beckoning for them to come inside.

"Quickly, before you get exposed even more!" the young woman hissed before quickly shutting the window and opening the door for the pair, with Fergus not that far behind. The trio entered the small house and closed the door behind them.

"Thank you so much…" Darcy said as he slowly eased the still-unconscious-body of the young woman onto a nearby bed. "No problem…" the older woman, who was most likely in her early 40's, sighed for a moment as she slowly sipped on a bottle of whiskey.

"You lads are IRA, right? I don't think many of the folk 'ere will tolerate you for long, so you better keep your nose clean, or we'll send you back to Belfast with those bombs of yours!"

"We'll help out as much we can around 'ere once the danger is over…" Fergus gave the woman a reassuring smile as Darcy continued to watch over the strange young woman.

"Good… Until the radiation has died down, help yourself to whatever's here, within moderation of course…" the woman gave Fergus a look as he sat down on a chair, thinking about what would greet them in the morning, if morning ever came.

For it was a brave new world, as September 26th 1983, was the day the world changed, for better, or for worse…


	10. Chapter 9: Road to Redemption

Flowers for Balaton, an Axis Powers: Hetalia/RDNA-verse Fanfiction

(Chapter 9: Road to Redemption)

 _"You're just a whore! You're an unholy monster that must be killed!" "Your precious Hungary has been humiliated by Comrade Braginsky, now you will be too…"_

Marcus looked around; the all-too-familiar Void that was his subconsciousness had taken the form of what was now a very familiar place. The sounds of gunshots and crying prisoners were two of the most constant reminders that he was in a prison.

 _"Why are you showing me this…?"_ the Prussian thought to himself as he continued to walk through the halls of the prison, seemingly invisible to the guards and prisoners. He soon came across a cell that contained the anorexic, dishevelled body of a young Hungarian woman, who'd been just previously violated by an insane guard.

 _"Mein Gott…"_ Marcus felt the urge to vomit as he stared right into the young woman's eyes, which were begging for death. It seemed that the young woman, who was once known as Roza, was finally broken, physically and mentally…

"I wanted you to see this…" Roza sighed as she stood beside Marcus, looking at her own dying body, still trapped in the cell.

"This is how I died, Marcus…" the Magyar clenched her fists in anger; she wanted to rip off the cell doors and tell herself that she didn't have to die this way, but alas, it was too late for that…

"I don't want you to go this way, not like I, Maximillian or Darcy did…" Roza held Marcus's hand as he continued to look at her body in horror. _"Ich verstehen…"_ Marcus nodded slowly, thinking about the trauma that the three had been put through.

One was a traitor; the other was a freedom fighter, while the other one was just trying to do what they thought was best for their country. Although, at most times, Marcus couldn't tell who was who…

 _"I'm sorry that you had to see it, but you had to know what killed me eventually…"_ Roza sighed as she squeezed his hand as two guards advanced towards the cell door, making Marcus cringe.

 _"It's ok… I understand, Roza…"_ Marcus grimaced as he made an attempt to turn his head away, knowing that something possibly even more gruesome than what was in front of him would take place. But as much as he tried to turn his head away, he couldn't.

Three gunshots quickly rung out as Marcus made one last attempt to shift his gaze as one of the guards put one last bullet in Roza's head, finally put the vengeful woman to rest.

 _"Tell Ivan that that cursed whore is dead… It took a lot, but she's finally dead…"_ one of the guards sneered at the bullet riddled corpse as his less-than-sane associate nodded and walked out of the room as everything faded to black…

Neu Wein, Royal Dominion of New Austria, April, 2023…

 _"Wake up… Marcus… Wake up!"_ Claude shook his subordinate as the young man continued to sleep soundly after downing what seemed like to be a lethal amount of whiskey.

The young Prussian had been drinking for most of the night after spending a few hours talking about Roza's stomach churning experiences during the Hungarian Revolution. During that time he'd managed to go through five bottles of whiskey, along with his hip-flask. _"No wonder they wanted him to lay off the alcohol…"_ Claude sighed to himself as Marcus woke up, albeit a bit slowly…

"Mornin' Claude…" Marcus yawned as he got off the couch, which had become is default place to sleep for the past few nights. _"Gut morgen, Marcus."_ Claude said with a smile as Marcus grabbed his Walkman off of the nearby table.

"How'd you sleep?" the Liechtensteiner said as Marcus sipped from a cup of coffee sitting on the nearby dinner table. "I slept well…" Marcus replied as he quickly finished the cup.

"I'm sorry for going a bit overboard last night…" the diplomat muttered. "I don't blame you for doing that, Marcus. I can imagine living a life such as yours; constantly fighting to keep your sanity in a world that hates you…"

Marcus nodded to Claude in response, after his two hour long alcohol and regret fuelled rant, he felt very sorry for himself. The memories of that incident in Port Elizabeth had flooded back that night, making him into an emotional wreck.

"Just try to keep calm, Marcus, you have me, you have the Agency, you have Lina and your family members to rely on…" Claude sighed as he put a hand on the young man's shoulder, hoping that he wouldn't snap at him.

 _"Ja… I try to, I really do…"_ Marcus stuttered as Claude suddenly hugged him, taking the young man by surprise. The young Prussian accepted the hug as he started to cry, gripping on Claude's uniform as he let out what seemed like centuries of repressed grief.

 _"Why did I have to be cursed with this insanity?"_ Marcus sobbed into Claude's shoulder as the latter continued to hold him. _"You'll be fine, Marcus. Trust me…"_ Claude sighed as Marcus stopped crying.

"Y-you think so…?" Marcus stuttered as he let go of Claude and sat on the couch, trying to calm down as he noticed Roza standing behind him, giving him a reassuring smile, although with a stoic, but still somewhat shattered façade.

 _"Ja…"_ Claude nodded in response as Marcus wiped the tears from his face before quickly standing up. _"I'm going to have a shower, and then I'll guess I'll have a proper breakfast…"_

Claude nodded once again as Marcus walked to the safehouse's bathroom. The Liechtensteiner sighed for a moment, hoping that Marcus would survive the period of madness he was going through.

Either he would come out as a vengeful ghost inhabiting someone's head, or as a man who still had a long way to go on the road to redeeming all of his past sins…

-0-

Somewhere near Moscow, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, November, 1956…

 _"Comrade Braginsky!"_ a Red Army guard barked, alerting the grinning Nation to his presence. _"Da~? What is it, comrade?"_ Russia turned around, staring straight into the young man's eyes.

 _"The Cursed One has been… dealt with."_ The guard said with an almost unflinching disregard for the former prisoner's life.

Russia gave the man a cold, unfeeling smile, possibly even a quiet laugh, but he couldn't tell… _"You've just earned yourself a promotion; they're a threat to our existence as Nations, no matter what the rest of the world says about them, we will wipe out these abominations, wherever they are!"_

The guard grinned enthusiastically as he saluted the Nation before walking out of the room, thinking about the privileges that his new rank would bring…

Russia turned around to his captive, who was too busy crying on the concrete floor. Hungary knew that her friend, who was almost a sister in her eyes, was brutally murdered by the puppets of an insane regime that had violated her body and mind, driving the latter insane, while Hungary herself was being 'interrogated' by Ivan.

 _"You fought well, Miss Hedervary, but not well enough…"_ Ivan sneered as he kicked the Nation in the ribs, sending her careening into the wall, her muffled crying being the only reminder that she was in pain.

 _"Hopefully this has taught you to never, ever cross me again…"_ the Russian glared at the rebellious Magyar as she nodded out of fear, possibly breaking her defiant warrior spirit. But she knew that deep down; it would take more than a bone breaking torture to do that…

 _"I'm so sorry… Roderich… Roza… I am truly, sorry…"_


	11. Chapter 10: A Silent Death

Flowers for Balaton, Chapter 10, an Axis Powers: Hetalia/1983: Doomsday Fanfiction

(Chapter 10: A Silent Death)

Somewhere near Belfast, Northern Ireland, September, 1983…

 _"Bloody Reds… I can't believe they finally did it…"_ Fergus McNamara sighed to himself as he lit a cigarette. Darcy mumbled something in agreement as he looked out of the window to where the city of Belfast once stood, now a charred pile of rubble…

The young Irishman looked over to the sleeping woman that they'd met when Belfast was hit, she seemed to be healing, but at an alarmingly fast rate. Some of her scars were seemingly permanent however as Darcy ran his fingers through her hair.

He'd heard rumours of such people existing, these so-called 'Nations'. But to see such people up close was something else… The young girl slowly woke up; a look of terror was frozen on her face as she stared into the eyes of her supposed captor.

 _"Tell me where I am, right fucking now!"_ she hissed as he reached for her pistol, but was surprised to find that she'd been disarmed in her sleep. "You're not too far away from Belfast... Miss…" Darcy sighed as he looked at the woman, who felt like she was going to throw up.

"You IRA bastards are always the same, wanting something that you will never have… You'll never have me! No matter how many times you violate me, Arthur will always be there for me…" she stuttered as a mounting sense of dread nearly overwhelmed the young girl, maybe he wouldn't be there for him this time, possibly never again…

 _"He will be there… He always is…"_ she thought to herself as she curled up into a ball and started to cry, knowing that her half-brother was probably no more than a pile of bones. _"We're not your enemy, not anymore at least…"_ Darcy said in stilted Gaelic as he held the young woman's hand.

 _"What's your name? Miss?"_ he asked, trying to comfort her, Fergus turned to face the pair as he looked them with a tinge of sympathy. _"I'm Branna… Branna Kirkland…"_ the Nation stuttered as she squeezed Darcy's hand, hoping that the pain would go away…

-0-

Port Elizabeth, New Britain, August, 2015…

Marcus awoke to the sounds of chirping birds, despite it being winter, it seemed that the wildlife of what was formerly known as South Africa were living as if the lower-than-average temperature didn't faze them.

The young Prussian sat up in bed, only to notice that he had no clothes on, with only a few sheets covering up his body. He lied back down to notice a young woman sleeping beside him, who was also not wearing any clothes. Her beret was hanging on the end of the bed, right next to Marcus's jacket.

 _"What the hell…?"_ Marcus muttered to himself. He could barely remember the events of the previous night, except for falling off Alice's couch and going through a major, if somewhat temporary depression. Marcus then blushed upon remembering what had happened in those lost hours.

 _"Mein Gott… We didn't do it…? Did we?"_ he grimaced as he noticed that Roza was waking up. She stared into his eyes with a much more upbeat expression, although there still were hints of melancholy... _"Morning…"_ she smiled weakly as she held onto Marcus's arm.

 _"G-gut morgen… Roza…"_ Marcus stuttered as his face turned to a dark shade of pink, making the Hungarian laugh.

 _"Don't worry, Marcus… It's kind of normal for us Cursed Ones… Just ask Darcy and Maximillian…"_ the Hungarian grinned as she rested her head on Marcus's chest. _"It's ok… I understand…"_ Marcus sighed as he slowly eased himself out of the bed.

Marcus grabbed his jacket and the clothes he was wearing a few hours prior. "Last night was comforting, if a little awkward." He smiled as Roza did the same.

 _"I couldn't agree more… Hopefully I won't turn around and kill you…"_

 _"After all, you're really good, no wonder Lina likes you so much~"_ she gave Marcus a suggestive wink before fading away.

Just as Marcus was about to provide another one of his witticisms to his previous body, Lina opened the door to Marcus adjusting his jacket. _"Morning, lieben."_ She smiled, pulling him into a comforting hug.

"Good morning, Lina" Marcus said as he kissed her on the cheek, still feeling a bit awkward from what had happened between him and Roza.

"I see that you're feeling better. Frankie's made breakfast for us…" Lina smiled as she walked out of the room while holding Marcus's hand.

 _"I am feeling a little bit better… Certainly a lot more than I was last night…"_ Marcus sighed while Lina nodded in agreement.

 _"Ja… Hopefully it's going to remain that way."_ The blonde smiled as the pair sat down at the dining table, where Frankie brought over the pair's breakfast.

 _"Morning, Marcus…"_ Francine smiled as she sat next to Marcus and started to eat her own breakfast, which just consisted of a cup of coffee and some toast with jam spread all over it.

"So… What did Roza tell you last night?" Marcus gave a somewhat forced smile as he took a sip from his coffee mug.

Lina and Frankie looked at each other for a moment, unsure of what to say to Marcus. "She told us about her experience in that wretched prison… I can't believe someone could go through such pain for so long…"

"Ah, yes… I can tell you that she suffered greatly, and we will try to find peace, for the both of us…" Marcus muttered as he started to eat his food, with the two women nodding in agreement, but were unsure of his mental state…

The three then finished their breakfast in silence, with Marcus finishing first. Francine got out of her chair first, followed by Marcus and Lina. The three walked over to Alice, who was sitting in front of the television.

"I assume that you lot are leaving?" the Nation turned around to face the three as Francine nodded.

 _"Ja. Lina and Marcus are going to leave tomorrow, so we may as well go back to my house while we're at it…"_ Frankie replied with Alice getting out of the chair and switching the television off.

Alice nodded as she looked at the trio with a smile. "Dad left a few hours ago, so I guess this is goodbye from the both of us…"

 _"Auf wiederhiesen"_ Marcus smiled as he walked out of Alice's house, with Frankie and Lina following him. He thought of the terrifying moment on top of that building, how he nearly could've taken his own life.

 _"Nein… I'm not alone, and I never will be…"_

-0-

"How long are we gonna be stayin' here for?" Branna sighed as she looked over to Fergus, who'd fallen asleep on the cold floor. Darcy stared into the young Nation's eyes as she rested her head on his lap.

"Depends on what Ferg' has to say on the matter…" the Irishman muttered as he fidgeted with an unlit cigarette in his hands before throwing it away. "I'd trade these for a pint of Guinness any time…"

Darcy suddenly coughed for a moment, and then started to feel a little uneasy as he suddenly felt the urge to throw up. He suddenly then realised that his life might end sooner than he thought... _"No… Not like this…"_

"Is everything ok, Darcy?" Branna looked at him with a raised eyebrow, knowing that something was wrong with him. The young man went pale as he tried to think up of a cover story to tell the young Nation, although he knew that she would find out eventually…

"I'm just tired… I need to rest…" he sighed as Branna got up and helped Darcy to his feet. He slowly walked over to a vacant bed that the owner of the house had given them to use. Darcy collapsed onto the bed, falling asleep soon after.

 _"Why must the world be so cruel to us…?"_ Branna suddenly heard a foreign sounding accent, a young woman, who was possibly in her early-to-mid 20's, was sitting in what was originally vacant chair.

 _"You're no Bean Sí…"_ Northern Ireland stared at the young woman who suddenly morphed into a more grotesque form, instead of a young, rather attractive looking woman, Branna was face-to-face with a twisted corpse that had more than a few bullet holes in her head and chest. Her torn military fatigues showed off a body that had been violated and tormented during her short life.

 _"I'm much more than that... Észak-Írország"_ the corpse teased, giving her a smile before changing back to her 'normal' form.

"I'm what your kind would refer to as a Cursed One… Humans that are cursed with an unbreakable cycle of death and resurrection, being forced to inhabit body after body. Being reduced to a ghost that inhabits the head of the living body…"

 _"I know of your people…"_ Branna said as she looked at Darcy, who was shaking in his sleep, probably having a nightmare or something along the lines of one… "Arthur told me about what you're like; some of you are just downright crazy, while some of you have been alongside us for centuries…" the Nation sighed as Roza walked over to the young man.

"He's dying… Branna… Darcy's only going to last a few weeks, at the most..."

Branna nodded as she tried to hold back the tears, seeing the Cursed One in a state such as this was quite a harrowing experience. "There must be a way for him to survive, THERE MUST BE!" she hissed, almost snapping at Roza.

 _"Nem… There isn't, he's going to die, Branna… Then he's going to end up like me, I can assure you, being like this is a fate worse than the most painful death imaginable."_


	12. An Intimate Interlude

Flowers for Balaton, A Classified Axis Powers: Hetalia/1983: Doomsday Fanfiction

(An Intimate Interlude)

Port Elizabeth, New Britain. August, 2015

 _"…You don't need to be sorry, Roza…"_

Marcus sighed as he took his jacket off; Roza was sitting on the bed, still sobbing as he sat next to her. The Prussian was thinking of a way to stop Roza from snapping at him, otherwise she would be much harder to control…

 _"I'm sorry! I'm sorry for hurting you, I'm sorry for everything!"_ the Hungarian snapped as she sobbed into his shoulder. The young woman proceeded to hug him, letting out years of repressed grief and anger.

 _"I'm just sorry, Marcus…"_ Roza sighed as she stopped crying, the emotional breakdown was too much for her.

"It's fine, Roza. I understand. I really do…" Marcus looked at Roza with sympathy, he was close to breaking down himself, but her comforting embrace had held back the tears as he struggled to avoid becoming an emotional wreck.

They stared at each other in silence for a few minutes as Roza released him from her embrace. She gave him a weak smile as she rested her head on his shoulder, making Marcus's blush slightly.

 _"I need comfort… Marcus… I need a release…"_ she whispered, blushing as she did so. Marcus was taken aback by her request, he thought of what Lina would do to him if they were caught…

 _"I-I can't… What if Lina-"_ Marcus was cut off by a quick kiss on the lips from the Hungarian, who was feeling equally uncomfortable. She pushed him onto the bed, holding his face in her hands, making it turn to a deep shade of red.

 _"She doesn't have to know… Plus, I don't think she would mind it…"_ Roza sighed as she removed her jacket, revealing her well-built figure, which Marcus had found to be closer to Hungary's proportions than Lina's.

 _"What have I gotten myself into this time…?"_ Marcus grumbled to himself as Roza took off her beret, letting the remainder of her dark brown, almost black hair cover her shoulders.

 _"Like what you see~?"_ Roza teased as she unbuttoned Marcus's shirt. Marcus nodded nervously as he finished removing his shirt. He felt Roza's hands move down to his crotch, making him blush even more.

 _"God, this is like out of some cheap romance novel…"_ Marcus grimaced as he tried not to flat out faint from embarrassment.

 _"You're quite fit for a guy who hangs around in an office all day~"_ the Hungarian muttered as she slowly removed his jeans, causing a now red-faced Marcus to nearly have a nosebleed as Roza threw his clothing to the side.

 _"M-meur ras…"_ Marcus muttered as Roza let out a quiet laugh. She then removed her breeches, leaving the two Cursed Ones in their underwear. "What next?" Marcus asked as Roza pulled him into yet another kiss.

 _"What do you think~?"_ Roza smiled as she stripped off the last of her clothing, revealing the rest of her body, which seemed to have an almost ethereal glow to it. Marcus took in the sight of the young woman's body; a few lustful thoughts crept into his mind, telling him to ravage the young woman, which he quickly ignored.

 _"You're beautiful… Roza…"_ Marcus smiled as he pulled off his boxers. Roza smirked as she pinned the young man to the bed, taking in the sight of his body before allowing Marcus to enter her as she straddled him.

 _"Ó Istenem~"_ Roza moaned as she suddenly felt Marcus pull her close to his chest as he started to thrust into her.

"I hope you're enjoying this…" Marcus gave the once-Hungarian a smile as he continued to pleasure her. Roza nodded as her moans became shorter and more frequent. Marcus felt her fingernails digging into his back as he quickened his pace, giving her a pleasurable smirk.

 _"S-stop teasing me, damn it…"_ Roza moaned, blushing as she felt him pleasure her continuously. All of the horrible moments that had befallen the pair seemed to disappear completely as they continued their rather rough love-making, although both of them certainly wouldn't refer to it as such.

 _"All this lust for revenge… It's kinda pointless, don't you think?"_ Marcus sighed as he held Roza's face close to his own. She nodded in reply as she gave him a kiss on the cheek, almost being close to tears once again…

 _"It's almost consumed both of us, driven you to suicide… and myself to pure insanity…"_ Roza stuttered as she gripped his back while Marcus slowed down with his thrusting. He wiped the tears off her face as Roza gave him a rather weak smile. _"Köszönöm"_

 _"No problem, Fraulein~"_ Marcus smiled as he got back into the rhythm of pleasuring Roza. Her moans were like music to him, he just had to hit the right keys to get the sounds he wanted…

"We can… _nein…_ We _will_ get through this. Trust me, Roza…" he whispered as a king of afterthought to his reply, just as he heard muffled noises from the other side of the bedroom door.

 _"I hope so… I guess vengeance against Ivan can wait… Igen?"_ the Magyar grinned as she kissed Marcus on the lips, feeling her climax inching ever closer, Marcus responded by thrusting as fast as he could without alerting anyone to their 'activities'.

 _"Roza.. I'm going to… verdammt…"_

 _"Do it… Marcus…"_ Roza muttered as she climaxed, moaning into Marcus's lips as she kissed him once again.

He gave Roza a nod as he thrusted for one last time, releasing his seed inside her, quietly moaning as he did so. _"Verdammt… That was…"_

 _"…Amazing?"_ Roza smirked as she felt Marcus pull out of her, with the latter nodding in agreement.

"At least you didn't kill me… That's certainly a change" Marcus chuckled as he felt the young woman snuggle up to him, eventually falling asleep on his chest.

 _"Sleep well… Roza…"_


	13. Chapter 11: Healing

Flowers for Balaton, An Axis Powers: Hetalia/RDNA-verse Fanfiction

(Chapter 11: Healing)

Neu Wein, Royal Dominion of New Austria, April, 2023…

" _So… What have the other Agents found out about this place?"_ Marcus asked as he chowed down on a full English breakfast that he'd made for Claude and himself. The Liechtensteiner prodded his fork at a small sausage for a moment before replying.

" _Not much… We've just been laying low for who know how long, but the surveillance is going well, in the RDNA at least. I can't say much about what the Agents in the Reactionary Nations are facing however…"_

"I see…" Marcus replied in English. "What of the Comm- I mean.. uh… Reds?"

"Nothing of note, just few close calls with one or two of our Agents… Hopefully we'll be able to get to the bottom of what this place is soon enough…" Claude sighed as he finished his breakfast.

" _Nice breakfast, by the way… I never knew that you were a good cook."_

"Thanks, Claude…" Marcus smiled as he finished his own breakfast. Not many people appreciated his cooking, probably due to the fact that one of his meals had nearly put Lina and Gilbert off pies for good. _"At least someone appreciates my cooking…"_

"Some of the superiors have been worried about the implications of sending someone like you to a timeline such as this…"

Marcus sighed as he nodded to Claude, knowing what he meant. "It's more of the same, isn't it? I'm the crazy, unpredictable guy that will kill anyone at a moment's notice… Now I know why there aren't many people like me in the Agency…"

"At least you're starting to arouse some interest among the medical staff… For good reasons, that is…"

" _Ja…"_ Marcus nodded as he quickly chugged down another cup of coffee. _"The sooner I find out what I am, the better…"_

Claude silently nodded as Marcus rinsed off most of the cutlery and plates. The Prussian then grabbed a newspaper and started reading it. The front page was dominated by rumours of the so-called 'Otherworlders' had started to spring up, after reports of strange looking men and women participating in equally strange activities throughout the Free World.

Marcus's thought of his C _anadien_ counterpart, having been burdened with the unknown fate of his cousin, who was most likely under the jackboot of the Collectivist Internationale… _"She's probably dead… Poor lad…"_

The diplomat flicked through the paper a few more times, most stories were on Collectivists, nothing interesting in his eyes. He put down the paper and glanced over to Claude. "I'm just gonna go out for a walk…"

"Go right ahead; just try not to kill anyone." Claude replied with a slight amount of sarcasm.

Marcus gave the Liechtensteiner a nod as he walked outside, this time remembering to put his sunglasses on. He surveyed the streets of the city, watching for anything out of the ordinary. He hoped that the police, or worse, the _Evidenzbureau,_ weren't watching him, especially after the 'incident' that had occurred a few days prior…

He started to walk through the streets of _Neu Wein_ , gaining more than a few odd looks from a few citizens, who were clothed in much more formal outfits, compared to Marcus's leather jacket and jeans combo…

The Prussian continued walking past more than a few cafes and small apartment blocks that were seemingly taken from the Confederation and transplanted into the middle of Mexico, which was something that Marcus just couldn't ignore.

Marcus then spotted a young woman in the crowd, her somewhat vague resemblance to Elizaveta and Roderich had piqued his interest. Her thin frame, long brown hair reminded her of a much older Julia…

He started to trail the young woman, noticing her rather archaic looking military uniform, compared to the other more 1950's-esque clothing. He knew that something was up with the lass. Even with his view from a few meters behind her, the woman's posture seemed to show that she was stressed about something.

" _What's your take on this, Roza?"_ Marcus muttered as the Hungarian appeared beside him with a somewhat worried look on her face. _"I-is there something wrong…?"_

Roza's face suddenly snapped back to a more upbeat facade, yet it was betrayed with the worried look in her eyes. _"There's something wrong with that girl, but she certainly looks like Roderich and Elizaveta's offspring…"_

The pair continued to trail the young woman, making sure that they were unseen as their target continued to walk, completely unaware of their presence.

" _No doubt about it… She's a Nation."_ Roza muttered as he noticed the young woman turn around suddenly, as if she heard something that no one else did. "...Aaaand… I think she's spotted us!" the Hungarian added, fading away as Marcus turned around and started to walk in the opposite direction.

" _I really hope you know how to defend yourself, Marcus..."_ Roza said sarcastically as their target was only a few metres behind them, seemingly in hot pursuit of the Agent.

" _I only learnt CQC because of you, seeing that you were rambling about that Metal-whatever-it-is!"_ Marcus grumbled internally as he tried his hardest to blend in with the crowd. _"Plus… I've never liked fighting anyway..."_

Roza rolled her eyes as she appeared next to Marcus, who'd started to speed up into a full blown sprint. _"Just keep running! She's catching up to you, damn it!"_

Marcus quickly darted into a nearby alleyway, which was awfully similar to the one that he'd encountered Alfred in… He suddenly felt a sense of panic overwhelm him as he tried to find somewhere to hide.

" _There's gotta be something here, maybe a cardboard box would suffice?"_ Roza quipped as she looked for something. _"You have that perception thingy, right?"_ she continued as Marcus came across a dead end.

" _Umm… Yeah… I have it..."_ Marcus muttered as he activated the device that was on his wrist, causing the young woman to lose sight of him. " _Why the hell have I not used this before?"_

" _You tell me..."_ Roza chuckled _"I guess that your lack of being noticed at work actually has some use… Now try to sneak out of here without alerting her."_

Marcus nodded as he slowly, but surely made his way out of the alleyway, although the woman noticed something out of the corner of her eye, making her whip her head around to face the mysterious figure.

" _Mama? Papa…?"_ the woman stuttered with a mixed bag of emotions. The two Cursed Ones saw a darker side to the girl, who was seemingly on the verge of snapping entirely, probably only taking one word or action to do it…

" _Must be my imagination..."_ she muttered to herself, slowly looking around for anything out of the ordinary. Marcus stood stock still as he watched the young woman slowly exit the alleyway, looking like she'd seen a ghost.

" _I saw something..."_ Roza muttered as she poked her head around the corner, watching the girl walk away.

" _What did you see? Roza?"_ Marcus asked, switching off his perception filter.

" _Something dark… There's something inside her that threatens to snap her sanity..."_ Roza looked to the side, a crooked grin forming on her face as she looked at Marcus, making the Prussian a little uneasy. _"Oh the things we could do together… We could find Ivan, and beat up that_ _Amerikai bastard again… And wipe out those Reds. Wouldn't it be fun!?"_

"Roza, this isn't you..." Marcus hissed as the Hungarian pinned him to the wall, holding the knife close to his neck. "Don't do this to me, damn it..."

" _Why not…? It's going to be fun~"_ Roza grinned. _"You'll eventually come around to it… People always do… You feel it too, don't you~"_

" _What would Elizaveta think of you!? She would be ashamed of you!"_ Marcus snapped, feeling his temper get the better of him. _"She would be ashamed of her precious 'sister' being no more than a revenge driven psychopath that has nothing to live for! Surely there must be a better way to spend time in the afterlife..."_

The young woman suddenly froze, trying to come to terms with what Marcus had said. _"Marcus… I'm already a demon..."_ the Magyar stuttered, nearly breaking down in his arms. _"I don't think I'll be able to stop this… Even if Ivan gets his comeuppance, the madness won't stop."_

"Just… Try to keep it together, for my sake, and yours." Marcus muttered as he held Roza close to him. The Hungarian nodded and gave him a somewhat weak smile, knowing that she may never recover from her madness. But at least she had someone to share it with…

" _Shall we go back to the safehouse, or should we go walk around for a bit?"_ Marcus smiled as Roza nodded, giving him a slightly more upbeat smile.

" _Igen… Might as well become a bit more familiar with this place… Especially with those Reds running about!"_ she smiled, fading away into Marcus's subconscious….


	14. Chapter 12: Return to the Wasteland

Flowers for Balaton. An Axis Powers: Hetalia/1983: Doomsday Fanfiction

(Chapter 12: Return to the Wasteland...)

Somewhere near the Burgenland/Sopron Frontier Territory Border, Alpine Confederation. August, 2015…

Marcus struggled to stay awake as the car he was being transported in made its way through a rather sleepy Austrian town. The sights of _Wiener Neustadt_ seems to go by in a blur as he glanced over to Lina, who'd fallen asleep and was leaning against his shoulder. It didn't take much effort to explain to his intentions to her, he knew that he would understand his rather personal reason for the detour. _"Might end up meeting Liz again..."_ he sighed to himself felt the young woman firmly grip his arm as she slept soundly.

"How long until we get to Sopron, Herr Franz?" Marcus asked as the Austrian aide glanced over to him.

"Less than two hours, Herr Wright" the man smiled as the car sped out of the small town and out into the Austrian countryside. Marcus smiled as he felt Lina move slightly, occasionally muttering something in her sleep.

"Herr Edelstein has made arrangements for an inn that you and Fraulein Worth will stay at while you're in Sopron" Franz added as the diplomat started to succumb to a lack of sleep.

Marcus tired his hardest to stay awake as he heard the familiar voices, wanting him to descend into the darkness of his subconsciousness, the temptation to do so was too much. Maybe it was the jet lag, or it could have been Roza, wanting to put him through another round of torture…

" _Ba mhaith liom a fheiceann tú arís..."_

-0-

Somewhere near Belfast, Northern Ireland. September, 1983…

" _He's dying… I can't believe he's dying..."_

Branna was close to collapsing from stress as she continued to watch Darcy shudder in his sleep, seemingly on the edge of death. The Nation just wanted to hug and comfort the young man, but she knew that it would be pointless…

" _He's going to die, Branna… Whether you like it or not, Darcy is dying!"_ Roza snapped as the former Magyar nearly snapped out of frustration, not wanting to go through the pain of seeing yet another Nation lose someone close to them.

The two women stared at each other as a tense silence descended across the room, with the only sound that was within earshot was Fergus' quiet snoring, along with the odd painful whimper from Darcy. Either an argument would break out, or one of the two would break down.

" _What happens to you people when you die, anyway?"_ Branna asked, trying to take her mind of Darcy's condition. Roza grimaced for a moment, thinking about the surreal experience that she'd felt during her first moments as a ghost.

" _It's hard to explain…"_ Roza sighed, trying to piece together her fractured subconsciousness, if only for a moment. _"When us Cursed Ones die, we generally end up becoming some kind of spirit or ghost… Sometimes we're confused as bad omens and bringers of death and destruction. I guess you could see me as a Banshee at the moment..."_

Branna sat there, listening to the young woman tell her story. The Irishwoman could certainly see cracks forming in the Magyar's facade, showing a much darker side to her personality. Something that she didn't want to see…

" _We can control the body that we inhabit, make it serve our needs… We can even interact with the physical realm, albeit in a limited capacity… It's strange, really… It feels like I'm still alive… Yet I'm still a ghost..."_ Roza flashed Branna a malicious smile.

" _Even our very existence is a mystery… But I intend to spend this life hunting down the man that violated me… Oh the things I would do to Ivan… I will show him true pain!"_

"Are you alright…?" Branna asked as Roza still had the seemingly unhinged expression on her face, which was quite unnerving, to say the least. The Hungarian leaped from her chair and tackled Branna to the ground, holding a rusted and blood soaked combat knife to her throat.

" _Oh… I'm fine… I've never felt better~!"_ Roza hissed as she pressed the knife closer to her throat, watching a small amount of blood trickle from her throat. _"All this chaos… This destruction… It's beautiful~!"_

Branna tried to not break down, even after her capital was reduced to ashes. She wouldn't accept her fate that easily, she knew that she wouldn't give up, even if it was for seeing Darcy pull though, if he ever did...

" _Chun an grá Dé, le do thoil stop!"_ Branna yelled as Roza went in for the kill. Raising her knife above her head, the Hungarian plunged the knife into the wooden floorboards, just mere inches from the Nation's head.

" _I'm sorry about this Branna... I can't control myself..."_ Roza shuddered as she slipped her knife back into it's sheath, getting off the Nation as she did so.

" _What happened to you…?"_ Branna shuddered as she slowly rose to her feet, walking over to the bed that Darcy was sleeping on.

" _Many things happened to me…"_ Roza replied. _"_ _Terrible things…"_

-0-

Sopron Frontier Territory, Alpine Confederation...

" _I wouldn't if I were you, I know what she can do. She's deadly man, and she could really rip your world apart... Mind over matter, the beauty is there. But a beast is in the heart..."_

The car carrying the two diplomats slowly came to a stop outside of a small inn, just as Marcus's Walkman continued to play some old _Amerikaner_ song. Lina slowly, woke up, still holding onto her lovers' arm. _"_ _Guten tag, lieben~"_ the Alpine smiled, getting out of the car with him.

" _I hope you understand the reason why we're here…"_ Marcus muttered as he grabbed his holster off the seat that was adjacent to him.

" _It's fine lieben… Now go, you don't want to keep her waiting."_ Lina smiled as she gave her boyfriend a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek.

Marcus nodded as he strapped his holster on and got back into the car. "I'll see you soon… _Ich lieb dich._ " he waved to Lina as the car sped off to what would've been the rest of Hungary. Marcus grabbed a decently sized bouquet of flowers that were sitting next to him. The idea of doing what he was about to do seemed to be the right thing, he hoped that she would accept it, at the very least…

" _I hope you're happy… Roza..."_


	15. Chapter 13: Same Same, But Different

Flowers for Balaton: An Axis Powers: Hetalia/RNDA-verse Fanfiction

(Chapter 13: Same Same, But Different)

Neu Wein, Royal Dominion of New Austria. April, 2023.

"...At least this city is peaceful… Compared to the rest of this sodding planet, _Amerika_ included..." Marcus sighed as he started to sip on a cup of tea. Roza was sitting in front of the Agent, lazily reading over the menu of the cafe that the pair were eating at.

"I guess you could say that..." the _Magyar_ muttered, flashing her companion a smile. "Nukes or no nukes, the Americans here are certainly more annoying than those glowing bastards back home..." Marcus couldn't help but laugh quietly at her comment as a young waitress brought over their food.

Marcus started to eat his meal in silence as he noticed a familiar face in the crowd, the Prussian quickly put his reading glasses on, hoping that they would be enough to conceal his identity. Marcus' RDNA counterpart approached the pair upon recognising the young man, but was surprised when he noticed Roza…

" _Bonjour, Monsuier Mueller!"_ the _Canadien_ smiled as he grabbed a chair and sat next to Roza, who started to feel more than a little bit uncomfortable by his presence. The _Magyar_ held the menu closer to her face, in an attempt to ignore him.

" _Gut Morgen, Herr Wright."_ Marcus smiled back as he shook his hand. His counterpart glanced over to Roza, who was shuddering slightly.

" _Are you ok, Mademoiselle?"_ the young man asked as Roza pressed her face into the menu. "Bit of a quiet one, is she?" the Canadian quipped as Marcus nodded with a somewhat forced smile as he sipped his tea.

"She's a friend of mine, I met her in Freetown a few years back. We've been close ever since..." Marcus smiled as his counterpart sipped from his own cup of coffee. He tried to move the menu away from her, only for Roza to move it closer to her face.

"Try not to provoke her, she can be a little grumpy when she hasn't had any coffee..." Marcus warned his counterpart as the _Quebecois_ continued to sip his coffee. Roza slowly sipped from her own cup of coffee, trying to not say or do anything stupid…

"I understand. She reminds me of a friend of mine though… It's almost uncanny" Marcus noted as Roza moved the menu to the side slightly, showing her face for a few seconds. _"Mon dieu… She's just like you… and Mademoiselle Hedervary."_ He said under his breath as Roza's counterpart appeared beside the young man.

" _I can see that..."_ the once-Magyar chimed in, adjusting her old Hussar outfit. _"It's probably just a coincidence, nothing more"_

" _If you say so."_ Marcus sighed as his Doomsday counterpart finished his drink. He looked over to Roza, who was still internally screaming. Her resemblance to his own version of Roza was uncanny, although seemingly different at the same time.

"So, Herr Wright..." Marcus sighed to himself as he thought about what he was going to say to his counterpart. "I saw that photo, of ou-, I mean, your cousin… What happened to her?" Marcus's counterpart nearly spat out his drink in surprise.

"Oh… Yeah, _Mademoiselle de Klerk… She's dea- Non… She's missing. Oui, missing..."_ the Canadian stuttered, but his counterpart could easily detect some nervous, seemingly unhinged laughter. He stared at a small knife that was sitting across from him, wondering if he could use it. _"Non… I'm better than this..."_

"My cousin's family had living in Southern Africa for generations, before those _Kibaszott_ Reds had taken over the place. We sent letters to each other, even while the Collectivists were raping and pilliaging the nation..."

Marcus was taken by surprise when he heard the sudden addition of Hungarian to the young man's melancholic, detached tone in his voice. He felt more than a little unnerved when he watched his hands edge closer to the knife that was sitting next him.

" _She's still alive… I know she is!"_ Marcus gave him a creepy smile as he grabbed the knife and made sure that his counterpart was pinned against his chair before moving the knife a few inches above his throat in a seemingly threatening gesture.

" _I will find her! I will murder every, single Red bastard that gets in my way!"_ Marcus snapped, kicking his Prussian counterpart out of the chair before holding him to the ground. _"I'll make sure of it! THEY WILL ALL DIE, THEN FRANKIE WILL BE WITH ME, FOREVER!"_ the young man held the knife above his head, grinning manically. _"I might as well start with you, Red scum!"_

"Keep it together, Herr Wright… Bitte! For _both_ our sakes!" Marcus panicked as his counterpart tried to stab one of his arms, but moved it at the last moment. _"You're not fucking helping, Roza!"_ the Cursed One hissed as he managed to kick himself free of his counterpart's grip.

" _It's not me who's controlling him… It's just himself, fuelled by grief. It's as if you never got out of that depression..."_ Roza chimed in as she disappeared from the seat she was sitting in. Marcus shakily rose to his feet as his grief fuelled counterpart nearly landed a punch to his face.

Something then gripped his arm as Marcus felt his body flying through the air and straight into a brick wall. His counterpart walked over to the young man, laughing under his breath as he did so. _"I don't know where she is… But I will find her… She's mine… Oui… MINE!"_

"Get a hold of yourself, man!" Marcus adjusted his glasses, which had a small crack on them after being flung into the brick wall. "There's no need to lash out like this, I'm not your enemy! She is alive, trust me!"

" _LIAR!"_ the Canadian yelled, trying to land another punch onto his opponent, but missed again. Marcus sighed as he continued to dodge his counterpart's strikes, knowing what it was like to fight under an emotional load, also while heavily intoxicated.

"You don't know how to fight, do you?" Marcus flashed his opponent a grin as he dodged yet another poorly thrown punch. "Try to keep up, will you?" Marcus continued to avoid his punches, most of them at the last minute as he'd seemingly found an opponent that was at his level.

Just before Marcus was about to get a punch to the face, something flashed in front of his vision with almost inhuman speed and slammed his counterpart against the brick wall. "What the…?" the Prussian raised an eyebrow as a young woman, who had a clear resemblance to Roza – albeit with an old Hussar's uniform – was standing over his counterpart, while berating the young man.

" _How stupid was that!? You tried to fight this guy… He's stronger than he looks, Marcus!"_ the former New Austrian facepalmed as the man took his punishment, sporting a few bruises from his counterpart's assault. Roza turned around and faced Marcus with an apologetic, and certainly less insane look on her face. _"I'm really sorry about this, Mister Mueller… I should try to keep him under control more often"_

" _No problem, Fraulein… Just tell him that his cousin is alive, not matter how many times he tries to deny it… Frankie is still out there, trust me..."_ Marcus sighed as he put a hand on the young woman's shoulder. _"You and Frau Worth are the only ones who can keep him together in this messed up world, and I hope you do a good job of it..."_

Roza nodded slightly as she turned around, but not before giving him a wink. _"I know who you are, Marcus, and igen, I will keep him from knowing… Until it's the right time to tell him."_

" _Just don't make him kill anyone..."_ Marcus sighed as he walked off, with his version of Roza following him. "I assume that chat went well? He asked, shifting his glance behind him to notice his counterpart getting his ear talked off by his own version of Roza.

" _Igen, it did. It's probably what would've become of us if our personalities were swapped."_

Marcus smiled as he put an arm around Roza's neck, pulling her close to him. "I guess we have a long way to go. But at least this is a start…"

" _Ja, mein Herr~"_ the Magyar smiled, messing up his hair as the pair walked back to the safe house. _"Let's hope that this version of you gets his happy ending..."_

Southern African ColMem, Collectivist Internationale…

" _Bloedige hel… Why did I get into this ungood nonsense in the first place?"_ a young woman sighed as she made her way past a group of intoxicated guards. She watched a few of them stroll past her, weapons tucked neatly into their holsters. Once the men were gone, the _Afrikaner_ crept past them, trying to resist the temptation to slip into ColStandard once again.

"You're going to get what's coming to you, soon enough..." Francine de Klerk muttered as she felt for the rifle that was slung over her shoulder. After making a mental note that she still had her weapon on her, she sneaked past a small building that was full of Reds. _"Damn traitors, the lot of 'em…"_

After lurking around the compound for a few minutes and watching a myriad of trucks drive past the place, some carrying weapons. While others carrying people, both dead and alive stopped to drop off their sickening cargo.

A sudden noise made her turn around and pull out her rifle, which had probably belonged to an unfortunate Collectivist. "Don't do that!" she hissed as her companion approached her slowly with his hands up.

"Sorry about that, Miss..." a young man of Zulu descent muttered under his breath as he walked over to the young woman. "Our superiors have told me to come and retrieve you. It's too dangerous out here, one wrong move and we could be sent to Room 101 or-"

The young man was suddenly cut off as a gunshot confirmed the young man's demise. Blood and viscera splattered against a concrete wall were the only reminders of his once untainted face. _"Always sticking you neck out for others David… I knew that would get you in the end..."_ Frankie laughed to herself after making such a morbid comment.

" _HALT! UNPERSON!"_ a young, vaguely _Afrikaner_ accent voice boomed as a spotlight shone over the young woman and the headless corpse of her fellow partisan. _"Report to the barracks and you shall be cleansed of your heretical oldthink ideas! Do otherwise and we shall end your pathetic existence, just as the Will intended!"_

" _You won't get me this time… Not again!"_ Frankie shot the man a grin as she bolted before the spotlight could catch up to her. The bolt into the night was a success, she spotted a familiar light in the distance, the lights of what was originally her hometown. Now a Red stronghold, but she knew that she would return there, eventually.

" _Let's hope that those Otherworlder rumours are true..."_ she continued to be on the lookout for any more Reds, knowing that a sniper could be following her at any moment.

"I will find you, Marcus… Just hold on, _my geliefde neef..._ "


	16. Epilogue: Only Time Will Tell

Flowers for Balaton: An Axis Powers: Hetalia/1983: Doomsday Fanfiction

(Epilogue: Only Time Will Tell)

46.7696° N, 17.2481° E, Hungarian Wastelands (Formerly People's Republic of Hungary). August, 2015…

" _To think that this place is still holding on…"_ Marcus muttered to himself as he wistfully stared out of the car window. The strangely tranquil scenery of a small Hungarian town along the banks of Lake Balaton contrasted with what lay beyond the zone of control that those Alpines had set up for themselves…

Various trucks with Alpine flags were unloading their weekly food and medicine shipments as the small Mercedes that was transporting Marcus and his fellow Cursed One continued on towards a location not too far from the town.

" _I can't thank you enough for this, Marcus… It's too much, really."_ Roza sighed as she held onto the Prussian's arm. The Magyar felt uncertain, wanting to face her demons, yet also feeling the pull of her more malicious side, who was begging for more blood to be spilt. _"All for revenge… Such a petty thing…"_

"It's ok _Fraulein_. Just try to keep it together, we're nearly there..." The Prussian smiled, pulling her close to him. _"Don't snap at me now, verdammt."_

The car continued through the winding roads, allowing the pair to take in the view of the lake and a few villages in the distance. Marcus took out a small dossier of files marked 'Project RDNA' from a briefcase and started reading them. _"You're still looking into that Agency stuff?"_ Roza quipped in a way that only Marcus could hear her.

" _That proposal was interesting, don't you think? We can get help, Roza. Don't you want to get out of this constant spiral of torment?"_ Marcus sighed, holding Roza's hand with a rather tight grip.

" _I would do anything to get out of this sanity. Except killing you of course"_ the Magyar smirked as she rested her head on her companion's shoulder. _"If only I'd been given a more honourable death… Or if I'd managed to live, I could've been able to see my family again..."_

"You have me, Roza. You have all of us. Even if Maximilian doesn't like to say it..." the Prussian smiled as he tried to comfort the young woman, at least this time it was seemingly working…

" _I heard that, you halfbreed!"_ Maximilian smirked as he appeared next to Marcus.

"You've been awfully quiet…." Marcus quipped as he took a swig from his hip flask. Maximilian sighed as he noticed the barely concealed look of uncertainty on Roza's face. He put a gloved hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

" _Remember our first meeting?"_ Maximilian smiled as Roza rolled her eyes and smirked at the soldier.

" _Of course I do, you dummkopf… I stabbed you~"_ the Magyar grinned as she elbowed the man in the ribs. Maximilian sighed as he continued to tease the young woman, leaving Marcus to look out of the car window.

The car started to drive off the road as it made it's way to a nearby cemetery that was seemingly unknown to the rest of the world. "We're nearly there… Just a few more minutes." Marcus felt a sudden surge of emotion as he watched the gates of the makeshift cemetery inch closer and closer.

The car eventually came to a stop outside of the cemetery, leaving Marcus and Roza to get out of the car, leaving Maximilian to do as he pleased. The German smiled as he noticed the pair was holding hands as they inched closer to the gates of the cemetery.

" _Köszönöm, Marcus..."_ Roza smiled weakly, planting a kiss on her cheek, but not before glancing over her shoulder to notice a familiar face. _"Might as well leave you two alone..."_

" _Ah… Fraulein Magyarország"_ Marcus turned to face the once-alive Nation, who was sporting her old military uniform.

" _It's certainly been a while, Herr Wright"_ she replied in a faux German accent. _"To think that you and Roza would've made up your differences over a night of passiona-"_

" _Wait… What!?"_ Marcus felt his face go red as Hungary barely restrained a laugh. _"Don't tell me..."_ he sighed to himself. _"You saw the whole thing, didn't you?"_

Elizaveta nodded in response, giving him a sympathetic smile. _"It's great to see that you two are working out your differences, but it's going to be a long, bloody path to peace… Maybe if you find more of your own kind… If there are any left..."_

Hungary opened the gates to the cemetery as Marcus suddenly felt more than a few traumatic memories flooding back as he stepped through the gates. _"This is no ordinary grave site..."_ he muttered to himself.

" _It certainly isn't…"_ Elizaveta replied, directing the man towards one headstone in particular. _"These are the graves of those who have kept my people safe… It's a memorial to those who stood up to tyranny and gave up their lives so we can live… They're the unsung heroes from before the bombs…"_

Marcus knelt down and read over the headstone, trying not the break down upon noticing the name that was carved onto it in seemingly intact granite. _"They couldn't afford her a proper burial…?"_ he sighed to himself, placing a hand upon the cold stone surface. _"She sacrificed her life and her sanity for her homeland. She was a real hero. She was a true freedom fighter... Certainly worthy of such a title"_

Marcus continued to struggle against the overwhelming amount of emotion that was threatening to reduce him to an emotional wreck. He slowly placed a small bouquet of roses onto the grave, quickly saluted and turned his back, only to notice that Elizaveta had disappeared…

" _It's been some time since there have been flowers here… Flowers for Balaton… Such a fitting name..."_

Marcus could only smile as he heard her voice, seemingly being carried by the slight breeze that was being carried through the gates of the cemetery… A sudden flash of light caught his attention. The Prussian pulled out his Luger as he made his way to it's source, deep within a wooded area.

" _You must be Marcus Wright, ja?"_ a voice, belonging to a blonde haired man of a rather youthful appearance stepped out of the shadows, clothed in a uniform of some sort. _"I've heard a lot about you… Bitte, call me-"_

" _Claude von Falkenburg?"_ Marcus smirked. _"As have I, mein Herr… As have I..."_

"Mind leading the way?" Marcus asked as he gave the Agent a grin. "We shan't keep the Directors waitin'..." he added with a slight amount of West Country to his already growing repertoire of accents.

Claude raised an eyebrow "I've heard of your rather interesting linguistic skills… I guess that's something for your fellow trainees to get used to… Anyway, I guess it's time for you to experience our organisation first hand…."

Marcus nodded as he felt a strange light envelop him as Claude flashed him a grin.

" _Welcome to the Agency, Marcus Wright..."_


End file.
